2024 State of Breastfeeding Support in the Workplace
A survey of 500+ HR Managers across Kenya about breastfeeding support for working mothers
Background
In alignment with the theme of World Breastfeeding Week 2023, “Enabling breastfeeding: making a difference for working parents”, the aim of this survey conducted among HR managers across Kenya was to assess the landscape of employer support for breastfeeding across Kenya. 561 HR managers across various industries provided their input on the breastfeeding support provided to their employees.
These survey results highlight a significant gap in workplace support for lactating women. Optimal breastfeeding is not just a personal responsibility but a collective societal one. It is imperative that workplaces step up to ensure that mothers have the necessary support to continue breastfeeding while balancing their professional life.
Despite Kenyan public policies mandating breastfeeding support at the workplace, most work environments are not conducive to breastmilk expression.
As a result, ~300,000 working Kenyan mothers stay home from work every year. With an average birth rate of 3.5 births, women end up losing several years of wages and some stop working completely. This is not only detrimental to the woman, but also her family, her company, and her neighborhood – because women are more likely to reinvest their wages into their communities than their male counterparts.
Employers don’t have a clear blueprint for supporting breastfeeding
62% of survey respondents said that they do not have clear cut breastfeeding policies and 20% of respondents that feel their current policies require an improvement. Those employers who do have a breastfeeding policy, have adopted it from the Health Act, though in partial proportions. This is an indication that breastfeeding policies are not comprehensively developed within companies.
To develop an effective breastfeeding support policy, it is paramount that companies carry out surveys or other efforts to engage their employees on the type of support which would be most effective, as well as to measure impacts of these efforts. Unfortunately, our research revealed that 87% of respondents have never carried out employee satisfaction surveys on breastfeeding support.
62% of survey respondents said that they do not have clear cut breastfeeding policies.
73% of survey respondents don’t have a lactation room
The Health Act of 2017 mandates that workplaces with over 30 employees must have a lactation room for breastfeeding mothers. Unfortunately, 73% of respondents indicated that they do not have a designated lactation room; however, a small percentage have small unfurnished rooms. Companies and institutions scored highest on this parameter. Most of these rooms are uncomfortable and lacking accessories.
Without a dedicated lactation space, women might try to express breastmilk in the restroom. Reliable electricity for electric pumps is not accessible, so women either use slow manual pumps or their bare hands. Refrigerated breastmilk storage is rare.
While lactation rooms are mandated for employers in Kenya, an important question to ask is to what extent has the lactation room been used. A few example of under-utilized lactation rooms include:
A breastfeeding nurse who reported struggling to go down three floors in order to express breastmilk, while she was actively serving patients at her hospital.
In settings such as a tea farms, breastfeeding employees found it difficult to use the lactation room because of how far it is from the location they are picking tea and how the time taken away from picking tea impacted their earnings.
For employees working in field sales or research, they rarely enjoy the benefits of the lactation room which is located at their headquarters.
Although private, comfortable, and accessible spaces for breast milk expression are helpful for working mothers, establishing a dedicated lactation room that meets the legally mandated standards can be costly, and sometimes, ineffective. Investing in a private space furnished with the necessary appliances to support breastfeeding employees can cost over 400,000 Kshs. per location, not including the ongoing cost of electricity and maintenance.
Unfortunately, this can be difficult to justify for a small or medium size business that may only have a handful of breastfeeding employees over several years. For large employees with a dispersed workforce that spans across a large farm or manufacturing plant, a lactation space, which employees can easily access several times per day may not be realistic. Finally, for companies with several branches, a lactation room in the headquarters is not useful for the breastfeeding mothers at their branches, which are often exempt from the Health Act as workspaces with fewer than 30 employees.
Beyond practical support such as breastfeeding policies and spaces, 71% of companies have not made efforts in providing information or education on lactation. A concerning 29% said that the topic is neither openly discussed nor encouraged in their companies.
Although optimal breastfeeding has numerous benefits for children, mothers, and overall society, it is often treated as a personal responsibility of the mother. One of the challenges for mothers, and fathers, is a lack of opportunity to learn best practices for breastfeeding. Particularly in workplace settings, mothers feel isolated and alienated as they try to balance breastfeeding with their work schedules. Stemming from cultural practices, fathers find themselves ill equipped to support their partners in breastfeeding since they lack guidance and information.
The Kenyan Ministry of Health, Maziwa Breastfeeding, and the Kenya Association for Breastfeeding all recognize and champion the importance of supportive, accurate, and practical lactation education, especially through peer-to-peer support. This can be an effective way to dispel cultural myths and misconceptions and disseminate correct and useful information, in a non-judgemental manner. Employee support groups could be a model to encourage breastfeeding at the workplace. Expert lactation educators and consultants could run health talks and train breastfeeding champions within each company so that organic support groups can be created.
71% of companies don’t provide breastfeeding information or education.
How to support your breastfeeding employees
The Kenya Health Act of 2017 and these Guidelines for Securing a Breastfeeding Friendly Environment at the Workplace 2018 have ample information on how to create a supportive environment for your breastfeeding employees. Here are some suggestions based on our research and experiences:
Paid Maternity and Paternity Leave
Allowing parents to take time off work without worrying about their financial responsibilities is a crucial part of investing in the future generation of children.
Flexible Hours
Breastfeeding employees are entitled to 1 hour of protected breastfeeding time which allows them to prioritize breastfeeding or breastmilk expression during their workday.
Remote / Hybrid Work
Working from home or remotely for all or part of the work week allows parents to dedicate time to appropriate and necessary childcare and breastfeeding responsibilities.
Lactation Rooms
A private, clean, comfortable lactation room that is well-equipped with a chair, a fridge, an electrical socket, and a breastmilk expression tool (pump) can allow working mothers to express breastmilk.
Breastfeeding Support Tools
Breast pumps (especially those that are discreet, portable, and efficient), breastmilk coolers, pumping bras, and other tools can help working mothers to express breastmilk conveniently.
Breastfeeding Education
Engaging an expert lactation consultant or educator to provide basic breastfeeding and breastmilk expression education at the workplace or train breastfeeding champions can provide mothers with crucial information.
Employee Support Groups
A mother support group at the workplace can provide an outlet for working mothers to learn from each other and provide compassion, support, and information.
Company-Housed Daycare
If possible, a daycare close to the mother’s workplace alleviates the stresses of childcare and allows mothers to directly breastfeed her baby during breastfeeding breaks.
Breastfeeding Policies
A clear and comprehensive breastfeeding policy which adopts the 2017 Health Act guidelines and incorporates employee feedback allows new mothers to feel empowered to ask for their needs at the workplace.
We are here to help:
Please reach out to us for support regarding the creation of breastfeeding policies, deployment of appropriate breastfeeding resources, purchasing corporate packages for breast pumps, hosting breastfeeding education sessions, or launching breastfeeding ambassador programs.
Maziwa Breastfeeding
Maziwa was founded to ignite the potential of mothers to balance their baby’s health and their family’s economic wellbeing. Maziwa has launched the Wema breast pump which can be used discreetly in any work environment. We offer a FREE needs assessment for our corporate packages and workplace breastfeeding ambassador programs.
Institute for Human Resource Management (IHRM)
As stipulated in the Human Resource Management Professionals Act, the core objective of the body is to regulate the HR profession in Kenya, enhance competencies and capabilities while supporting innovative and transformative HR practices and standards.
Kenya Association for Breastfeeding (KAB)
KAB was founded by breastfeeding counsellors and educators who aim to provide mother with practical support and information, enabling them to breastfeed. KAB can offer breastfeeding education sessions and consult on the development of breastfeeding policies and setting up lactation rooms.