Breastfeeding and work

(Photo: Miranda Kerr, taking a nursing brake during her work as model)

Around the world organizations like WHO, governments and physicians organizations advise that children are exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life and breastfed combined with suitable other foods into the second year of life or beyond. Many moms really want to do so, but in daily practice many don’t even start and within a month half of children who started out on breastfeeding are weaned to formula, and by 6 months very children are exclusively breastfed. Multiple causes can be pinpointed, some very clear, others less. Working outside the home is a major obstacle for making their breastfeeding goals for many mothers in industrialized countries. In fact, only in countries, like those in Scandinavia, with extended maternity leaves moms have far less trouble reaching those goals. Studies, amongst others by Guendelmans et al, shows that the shorter maternity leave the higher the risk of premature weaning. Breastfeeding promotion alone will not suffice, mothers need to be facilitated to get breastfeeding off to a good start en well-established. Working conditions are a significant actor, too. Many employers are not aware of legal regulations, they may fear jealousy amongst their employees because some can come and go for nursing and others not, and for less productivity when breastfeeding mothers are on and off nursing or pumping. Chow c.s. did find however, that some employers do realize that installment of a breastfeeding friendly protocol may actually lead to more loyal employees. In interesting view comes from Payne&Nicholls, who used Foucauldian analysis to interpret interview data of nursing mothers. They found that breastfeeding women feel they have to juggle to combine work and being a mother and do so while staying invisible for their co-workers and perform to be a good mother and a good employee. A less positive effect of this behavior, according to Payne and Nicholls, is that breastfeeding continues to be invisible, and the combination of work and motherhood stays difficult. In other words: mothers don’t do themselves, each other and their children a favour by juggling their roles and tasks in way that ‘‘they don’t bother anyone’’ with it.
Payne D, Nicholls DA: Managing breastfeeding and work: a Foucauldian secondary analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2010, 66:1810–1818
Chow T, Smithey Fulmer I, Olson BH: Perspectives of Managers Toward Workplace Breastfeeding Support in the State of Michigan J Hum Lact March 9, 2011
Guendelman S, Kosa JL, Pearl M, Graham S, Goodman J, Kharrazi M: Juggling Work and Breastfeeding: Effects of Maternity Leave and Occupational Characteristics. Pediatrics 2009 123: e38-e46