By Chukwuma Umeorah, Lagos
As part of efforts to promote infant breastfeeding, maternal and young child nutrition in the country, stakeholders have intensified the advocacy for government and the private sector to create an enabling environment for nursing mothers in their workplaces.
This was at public seminar in support of maternal infant and young child nutrition and presentation of the “National Guidelines on Baby Friendly Initiatives in Nigeria” and the “Toolkit for Workplace Breastfeeding Lactation Support Program” in Lagos, which would serve as a framework for the promotion of infant breastfeeding and to address the issues experienced by working mothers due to lack of support systems and weak protective environment.
The guideline covers the three components of the Baby-friendly Initiative (BFI) which include Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), Baby-friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) and the Baby-friendly Workplace Initiative (BFWI). The standard implementation protocols in the guidelines aim to promote high coverage of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and maternity services within communities and workplaces.
The project is an initiative of Family Health International, FHI 360’s Alive and Thrive in collaboration with National Employers Consultative Association (NECA)’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) and the Federal Ministry of Health and other relevant stakeholders. They noted that optimum breastfeeding is vital to achieving national goals on nutrition, health and survival, economic growth and environmental sustainability.
The President of NNEW, Funmilayo Arowoogun while stressing that babies of today form the workforce of tomorrow called on employers in the public and private sector to provide on-site lactation rooms and flexible programmes for the wellbeing of mothers and children.
According to her, “Mothers in the world of work deserve to have creches and lactating centers where they can breastfeed and nurse their babies and have them close while at work.”
Arowoogun argued that working parents are a major force in the Nigeria’s economy and balancing work and family is important because ensuring that mothers can care for their babies while at work would help to achieve optimum productivity from them. She added that the International Labour Organization (ILO) had said that lack of support at the workplace was one of the reasons why women stopped breastfeeding before the recommended period. Therefore, it was important for workplaces to create an environment where mothers feel encouraged, supported and protected to breastfeed.
Representative of FHI 360’s Alive and Thrive, Olawunmi Ajayi said that the initiative was a timely one as it had become increasingly important to address the plights of nursing women in their places of work and to ensure that they not forsake their careers because they must take care of their children.
“Alive and Thrive have closely supported NECA and NNEW since 2019 to undertake credited advocacy aimed at improving family friendly policies such as extending the duration of paid maternity leave and the availability of pensions within organizations.”
She likewise called on all organizations to adopt the National Baby-Friendly Workplace Initiative (BFWI) and create supportive policies to enable working mothers and families to exclusively breastfeed their babies as an investment in long term staff productivity.
Chairman, Access Bank Plc and the keynote speaker at the event, Ajoristsedere Awosika spoke on the stigma and discrimination faced by breastfeeding moms from their colleagues at the workplace. She lamented that this could have a very damning effect on the mental health of the mother and by extension affect the innocent child.
While highlighting some of the challenges mothers faced in balancing the demands of motherhood and employee responsibility, she noted that the employers themselves had to be involved as breastfeeding and nurturing a child was not a ‘one-woman’s job.’
On his part, the Director General of NECA, Adewale Smatt who was represented by Adenike Ajala harped on the need for employers to support women while they play the ‘productive and reproductive’ roles in the society. This was even as he reiterated NECA’s commitment to push the initiative to all employers as the umbrella body of employers in Nigeria.