What it really takes for working women to breastfeed for six months
WHO shows that more than half a billion working women are not given essential maternity protections in national laws.
For a majority of working women in Kenya, breastfeeding and the pumping of milk is close to impossible at work.
Very few employed Kenyan women are lucky to have clean, private lactation rooms where they can plug in a double electric breast pump and express in minutes.
A majority of breastfeeding mothers have to express the milk in unhygienic toilets, in their stuffy bosses' offices, in cars parked outside a street, or in boardrooms under the constant stress of knowing that someone might walk into the room at any time.
Some have to contend with the constant fear of excess milk leaking through the dress, or breast engorgement and infection.
Amidst the clatter of keyboards, the buzz of smartphones, the flurry of meetings, and the long hours in traffic jams, how did the career women who have managed to breastfeed exclusively for six months do it?
Margaret Wanjiku is a mother of two boys, seven and three years old. The CEO of African Tokikou Safaris recalls that although she was employed then, she was lucky to have flexible working hours that enabled her to exclusively breastfeed her firstborn for six months.
Margaret Wanjiku
"My boss allowed me to report to work from 10 am and leave by 4 pm. Since I worked close to my house, at times I would leave work at 1 pm to go breastfeed," she says.
Before leaving for work, Ms Wanjiku would express as much as she could and store it in his feeding bottles. The 33-year-old never had to express milk at the office and for the hours she was there, she focused on her job and did not drink as much to avoid triggering an increased milk supply.
Though Ms Wanjiku's partner was working in Nairobi while she lived in Meru, she acknowledges the support he would accord her during the weekend and when he was on leave.
"I remember there was a time we did not have a nanny and he would bring the baby during lunch hours for me to breastfeed at work," she recollects with a smile.
The duality of being a career woman and a nurturing mother is not only possible but a beautiful reality as it was the case of Mercy Muchoki.
Mercy Muchoki
The 28-year-old secondary school teacher and a mother of one says that before reporting to work, she fed her baby well and expressed sufficient stock.
Also read: Make workplace breastfeeding work
"I used to pump every morning and get up to 240ml of milk. My employer then would allow me to go home during lunch hours to breastfeed. When the workflow was a lot, I would express and my domestic manager would come pick the milk from school," she says.
Ms Muchoki says her workplace had no there was no lactating room, so she would use the bathroom to express.
"When we had our baby, my husband was working from home and could easily monitor her feeding schedules measuring which amount would satisfy her and at what intervals," she says.
Lilian Wangui, a mother of one, underscores that career and motherhood should not be at odds. The 28-year-old programme manager shares that not being obligated to work 8am to 5pm offered her plenty of time to navigate and get accultured to motherhood.
Lilian Wangui.
From the seventh month of pregnancy, Ms Wangui shifted to a hybrid working model and would pop into the office twice or thrice a week if need be. Three months after her maternity leave, Ms Wangui went back fully to the office and would express milk between two to three hours.
"Unfortunately, my workplace does not have a lactation room, but I was lucky enough because I have my own office. I would lock it and express. Though we have a fridge, I chose to store my expressed milk in the cooler bag in my car because for some reason people view breast milk as disgusting and that prevented me from putting it in the shared fridge," she says.
According to Ms Wangui, her daughter had enough supply before her maternity leave elapsed and kept replenishing the bags per every feed.
"My last pumping session would be around 9pm and at night, I would breastfeed her directly. As she grew, I went on reducing the number of times I would breastfeed her at night," she adds.
While she got a maternity leave, Ms Wangui says that her partner did not get a paternity leave and she would often feel overwhelmed at the initial months.
"We would get into disagreements because I needed him to watch over the baby at night while I slept and on the other hand, he wanted to sleep in so that he could be able to work well the next day," she says.
However, over time, they got to understand each other and would turn to take during the nights.
"I would sleep at around 8pm and he would stay with him up to around midnight where he would come to bed and I take over. My baby would sleep around 3-4am and though I would rock her, most of the time I would doze off while on the couch. Days in which she did not fall asleep by that time, I would wake my partner up and he would continue."
According to a survey conducted by career coach Jane Mutisya on 46 women, only 27 of them were able to exclusively breastfeed their children for the first six months.
Some attributed the biggest challenge for breastfeeding after maternity leave to reduced milk supply due to work-related demands, not being able to balance both work and thinking about their baby at home and lack of enough time to take care of the young ones.
"38 employed women did not have a lactating room at their workplace and would express in the washrooms, car, clinic and hotels. Some did not express and their breasts would pain them while others would leak and they would smell and be discriminated," says Ms Mutisya.
As the world observes the breastfeeding week this year, the focal point is making breastfeeding and work, work. Data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that more than half a billion working women are not given essential maternity protections in national laws.
Only 20 percent of countries require employers to provide employees with paid breaks and facilities for breastfeeding or expressing milk with fewer than half of infants under 6 months of age being exclusively breastfed.
Rachel Wanjugu, a nutritionist at the Ministry of Health under the department of Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition emphasized that breastfeeding is recognised as a human rights issue for babies and mothers in the Kenya Constitution.
These rights are enshrined under Article 53 (1c) which gives every child the right to basic nutrition, shelter and healthcare and Article 43 (1c) on economic and social rights provides for freedom from hunger and to have adequate food of acceptable quality.
Further, the Health Act, 2017 subsection 71. (1) says that all employers in the workplace should establish lactation stations which are adequately provided with necessary equipment and facilities including; handwashing equipment, refrigerators or appropriate cooling facilities, electrical outlets for breast pumps, a small table and comfortable seats.
"(2) All lactation stations shall not be located in the restroom. (3) All employers shall take strict measures to prevent any direct or indirect form of promotion, marketing and or selling of infant formula and (or) breastfeeding substitutes within the lactation stations," reads the constitution.
Additionally, employers should grant all nursing employees break intervals in addition to the regular times off for meals to breastfeed or express milk.
These time intervals shall include the time it takes an employee to get to and from the lactation station and shall be counted as compensable hours worked provided that such intervals shall not be more than a total of one hour for every eight-hour working period.
Ms Wanjugu also notes that an employer should ensure that there is a baby-friendly breastfeeding policy, lactation room/station, and time and social support structures for breastfeeding within the workplace.
According to the Employment Act,2007, Section 29, the workplace policy should provide a minimum of three months of paid maternity leave and two weeks of paternity leave.
"All employees should be sensitized on the workplace breastfeeding policy. They should be reassured that their participation in the workplace is compatible with their reproductive function."
The policy should outline workplace provisions to enable female employees to maintain breastfeeding as well as highlight the employer's commitment to helping workers to achieve work-life balance through flexible working arrangements.
