The importance of workplace support for breastfeeding |
The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Dietary Guidelines for Infant Feeding reflect the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life, with ongoing breastfeeding until 2 years and beyond with appropriate complementary foods. Despite this policy support, Australia has a poor record when it comes to exclusive breastfeeding and breastfeeding duration.
The NHMRC has set breastfeeding targets for Australia. It recommends a 90% initiation rate and 80% of infants to be breastfed for at least 6 months of age. With approximately 87% of women initiating breastfeeding this target is close to the NHMRC goal. This also suggests that the overwhelming majority of women want to breastfeed their babies. However, less than half of babies continue to be breastfed at 6 months of age. Only 23% are still receiving some breastmilk at 1 year and barely 1% of children at 2 years of age.
Evidence from the UK Millennium Study shows a link between maternal employment and initiation and duration of breastfeeding. The research shows that the earlier a mother returns to work the less likely she is to initiate and continue breastfeeding. She is even less likely to breastfeed if she has to return for financial reasons.
In November 2005, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated 181,000 Australian women participated in paid work after the birth of a baby. Of these, 118,000 mothers returned to work when their child was 6 months old or younger (75,000 returning when their child was aged 0-3 months, and 43,000 returning when their child was aged 4-6 months).
With women’s workforce participation continuing to increase, workplace support for breastfeeding plays a vital role in improving breastfeeding rates. It also means that employers need to build their capacity to meet the needs of a changing labour market and part of this is creating family-friendly workplaces for breastfeeding employees. |
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