Dubai: Mothers re-entering the workforce after delivery may face enormous challenges to continue breastfeeding but this is no excuse, breastfeeding advocates said on Tuesday. Expressing milk and storing it for later use will allow their babies to enjoy the benefits of breast milk.
“For the working mother, during the first few months she has more milk supply than what’s enough for her baby. Before joining work, she can express her milk and keep it in the freezer. [Breast] milk can stay in the freezer for six months or in the fridge for eight days,” Randa Taher Abdul Fattah, Lactation Consultant at Latifa Hospital, told Gulf News during the inauguration of National Breastfeeding Week at the hospital.
National Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in 120 countries around the world every August but is celebrated in the UAE in November to help create a more baby-friendly society.
Abdul Fattah said nursing mothers need support not only from her family but also from their employers.
“A mother needs to go to a separate room to pump her milk. And this is also another message for the managers, for companies, that we need to have a separate room for a mother who has just delivered and is breastfeeding,” Abdul Fattah said, adding a two-metre by two-metre private room in the office is enough to provide comfort and support to a nursing mother.
Doing so does not only benefit the mother and child, but also the company. Studies show a breastfed child has higher immunity to common diseases befalling babies. A nursing mother will then have fewer absences.
“If she breastfeeds, it will reduce a lot of hospitalisation, sickness, and all, she will be more productive, happy with her environment because of the support she gets. So she won’t lose in terms of her getting absent from work and in terms of her baby’s health,” Abdul Fattah said.
Sian Khoury, founding member of Breastfeeding Q&A-UAE, an online support group for nursing mothers in the UAE, told Gulf News: “We need mother- and baby-friendly workplaces. I think it’s always a good idea before they return to work to explain the benefit of breastfeeding to the employer and that it is also in their employer’s interest.”
Nursing mothers after taking maternity leave are entitled to leave their job, in two shifts, for a maximum of half an hour each, which equals to one hour every day during a period of 18 months after maternity leave according to the UAE Labour Law.
“Many mothers are unaware that they have the right to a breastfeeding break at work which is one hour a day and can be taken as two 30-minute breaks to either return home to feed the baby or express milk while in the workplace. Secondly, employers are not aware of this and so they are not offering support to mothers,” Khoury said.
