Breastfeeding friendly spaces in work environments.

Its strategic value in sustaining breastfeeding practice and health promotion

Abstract

Human breastfeeding is recognised worldwide as the ideal food for infant growth and development, and is also part of the reproductive process with important repercussions for mothers (1). Furthermore, the practice of breastfeeding promotes accessibility and sustainability and invites us to think about a model of food production that is sustainable for our territories and healthy both for those who choose to breastfeed and for children (2).

The growing feminisation of the labour market and in fields of study, as well as the different family configurations, together with changes in the organisation of work and production, have increased tensions between work and family dynamics and demands. Thus, the greatest challenge arises from the attempt to reconcile family and personal life with work/professional life, guaranteeing the necessary co-responsibility between families, the State, the market and society in general, in order to advance towards gender equity and equal opportunities in terms of health (3). 

Different situations represent barriers to continued breastfeeding. These include insufficient acceptance of the practice in society, lack of time available to mothers, limited support at home, work and school, feelings of modesty or embarrassment about breastfeeding in public, and a certain cultural preference for breastfeeding (4). 

For both working women and students, returning to work or study after maternity leave represents one of the main obstacles to sustaining breastfeeding, often due to negative attitudes within institutional settings, long hours away from home, short break times, lack of childcare facilities and insufficient and inadequate spaces for breastfeeding or safe milk expression within work institutions (5). It is clear then that combining breastfeeding and work requires a support network within the workplace that transcends the will of mothers and families. 

International organisations specialising in health issues and women's and children's rights, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations (UN) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) through their declarations such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, have emphasised the importance of breastfeeding in their declarations, have highlighted the importance of breastfeeding for women and the great benefits for the mother-child pair, families, society as a whole and for the ecosystem as it is a practice that does not degrade natural resources and also contributes to protecting the environment (6-8). 

For its part, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) points out the importance of the right to breastfeed, establishing the duty of employers to provide the necessary breaks in the working day or limits on the length of the working day to encourage women who return to work after maternity leave to continue breastfeeding. The ILO has also recommended that adequate breastfeeding facilities be established in or near the workplace and notes that employers who allow mothers the time to breastfeed, and/or provide a space for breastfeeding with adequate hygienic conditions, benefit in terms of increased productivity due to reduced absenteeism for parental care leave (due to better health status of babies), a higher rate of return to work after maternity leave and a better sense of well-being of women workers. However, women-mothers' workplaces generally lack such spaces, which with minimal structural and equipment requirements could function to facilitate the return to work and the continuation of breastfeeding (9,10). 

A room for expressing and conserving human milk, known in our environment as a ‘breastfeeding friendly space’, is a small, quiet, private and peaceful place that, being installed within an institution where women of reproductive age work, allows those who are breastfeeding to express their milk and store it refrigerated in adequate temperature and hygiene conditions until they return home. Within the family, the possibility of reserving and transporting expressed milk during the working day allows, in the absence of the mother, the partner and/or caregiver to feed the child, taking an active role in the shared responsibility of breastfeeding (10,11).

Setting up one of these rooms is not a costly investment, it requires minimal facilities and equipment and the will of the management to make it happen. It also requires logistics of care and operation that include the essential commitment of the institutional authority, the workers, the family and society as a whole. For this to happen, there must be a collective awareness from which each person can contribute their skills, knowledge and sensitivity to the operation and maintenance of the room (11,12).

The Breastfeeding Friendly Spaces at Work initiative contributes to guaranteeing the right of women working outside the home to breastfeed and to make informed decisions free from commercial pressures. At the same time, it guarantees the right of children to a healthy diet such as their mother's own milk, thus constituting one of the legal tools that contributes most equally to the continuity of breastfeeding regardless of the form of employment of women working outside the home, as well as providing women of reproductive age who are studying with support to help them through this stage of their lives. 

Encouraging the transformation of workplaces and women's development into breastfeeding-friendly environments offers the possibility of sharing the responsibilities inherent in this practice, contributing collectively to health promotion and social justice from the beginning of life.