The Star Online > Health
Sunday March 7, 2004
Balancing careers and breastfeeding
Breast milk is the best nourishment that mothers can give to their babies. However, many women lament the lack of a supportive environment that will allow them to continue breastfeeding while working. TEE SHIAO EEK looks at the struggle that they face.
Sheila (not her real name) only needed 15 minutes, once early in the morning and once during lunchtime, to express her breast milk. But even that was considered by her boss to be “too much time”.
The lack of support from her boss and colleagues wore on her nerves continually. Finally, after seven months, Sheila stopped breastfeeding and expressing for her baby boy. The lingering regret is evident in her voice as she recounts her experience.
Unlike Sheila, Fazidah does not face discrimination at the workplace, but neither is she in an ideal situation. Due to the nature of her job as an insurance consultant, she is always on the go and is sometimes forced to express her milk in public toilets, steeling herself against the strange looks she receives. Even in her own office, there have been times when she has had to express at the emergency exit staircase, for lack of proper facilities!
Sheila and Fazidah are among the growing number of working mothers who continue to breastfeed by expressing milk at the workplace. However, it has been a bumpy road for many of them, as current labour laws and workplace policies are still struggling to catch up with this new movement.
“It’s hard for working women. We have a long way to go before people are really educated (and) you can have a work environment that takes into consideration all these factors,” says the 32-year-old Sheila, a senior executive in a finance company.
According to the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, when women also work for a cash income, their work seldom accommodates reproductive work, such as pregnancy, breastfeeding and childcare. Most working women who want to breastfeed give up the idea of optimal breastfeeding, and resort to partial, mixed or token breastfeeding.
“Women have production work, as well as reproduction work,” says Dr Koe Swee Lee, Chairman of the sub-committee on Breastfeeding, Malaysian Paediatric Association. A woman who performs household duties, including caring for her children, is contributing to society, regardless of whether or not she produces a cash income.
“While women are trying to reach equal status in the professional world, we cannot forget our household responsibilities. How can you expect a woman to separate her duties at home from her duties at work ? and not think about the well-being of her children?” says Noorlaila Aslah, Chairperson of the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) Women Committee, which represents working women from all walks of life.
“Don’t think of women as a commodity,” implores Noorlaila. Yet when a woman divides her time between paid work and her responsibilities as a mother, the system offers her little support and is more likely to penalise her. While women are encouraged to breastfeed until their children reach two years or beyond, is everything actually in place to make this a reality?