KUALA LUMPUR - Gender equality policies have given women access to economic and social resources including career development opportunities.
But what about the rights of nursing mothers who resume employment after using up their maternity leave and need to take breaks while at work for the purpose of expressing breast milk? In Malaysia, lactation breaks at workplaces are not provided for by any law.
However, in the government and private sectors, lactating mothers are known to "sneak out” of their workspace once or twice daily to express breast milk, a practice most of their superiors don’t exactly disapprove of as they know it ensures the well-being of the employees concerned and their babies. But then not all employers are that understanding, causing many women to endure the risk of experiencing painful breast engorgement and depriving their babies of breast milk.
Lactation breaks refer to break time granted to employees who are lactating mothers to express breast milk, usually done with the help of a manual breast pump. (The expressed milk is usually stored in bottles in the refrigerator and taken home by the mothers at the end of the day to feed their infants.) The United Arab Emirates passed a law in 2014 requiring all government offices to provide the necessary facilities and a one-hour lactation break daily for all eligible nursing mothers. The Philippines too has a similar law under which all breastfeeding mothers are entitled to a daily lactation break of a minimum of 40 minutes at the workplace.
Medical professionals and breastfeeding advocates interviewed by Bernama urged the government to incorporate lactation breaks into the relevant laws to mandate lactation breaks and require employers to provide the necessary facilities to their breastfeeding employees.
Senior lawyer Kitson Foong said to recognise the right of working mothers to breastfeed, the government must amend existing legislation related to employees such as the Employment Act 1955, Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 and other relevant Acts or regulations.
"The amendments should also place a duty and/or mandate employers to provide lactation breaks and/or the necessary facilities in the office to enable the exercise of such right by working mothers in the workplace, and failure to adhere to such a law would result in legal consequences,” he explained.
He also said the Ministry of Human Resources must publish clear guidelines to employers on how they must accommodate the practice of breastfeeding at their respective workplaces.
Under the Ministry of Health’s National Breastfeeding Policy, nursing mothers are encouraged to breastfeed their babies for at least six months. Many working mothers, however, struggle to sustain breastfeeding when they return to work due to the lack of facilities and lactation breaks.
Asia Recruit managing director Damien Lim said lactation breaks should be practiced across all industries, be it government or private.
The provision of such breaks, he said, will enhance the productivity of the employees concerned since the health of the mothers and their newborns are well protected.
"Providing such breaks and some form of facilities not only supports new mothers but also improves their well-being. "These breaks can also serve as an additional benefit to improve employee retention, increase productivity and morale and perhaps reduce absenteeism in the organisation,” he said.
According to Prince Court Medical Centre consultant paediatrician Dr Anna Padmavathy Soosai, employers should consider lactation breaks as an essential feature for nursing mothers since it also contributes to the health of their newborns. She opined that lactating employees should be given two or three breaks per day, with each session lasting at least 30 minutes "as the mothers need to follow the breastfeeding rhythm”.
She said refusing nursing mothers the right to lactate will result in serious illness as a consequence of disregarding the importance of breastfeeding or routine milk expression.
"Breast milk can decrease because the breasts are not being stimulated or the mother can end up with engorged breasts because too much milk is being produced and then it can lead to infection which will be painful and very uncomfortable for her, resulting in her not being able to work properly,” said Dr Anna.
She added that since lactation should be done in a clean and hygienic environment, firms should provide nursing mothers with proper facilities to pump their breast milk instead of instructing them to do it in the washroom.
"If the environment is not clean, it defeats the purpose. It means you are giving infected milk to the baby,” she pointed out.
Medical officer Dr Intan Athirah Shaharin also supported mandating lactation breaks for breastfeeding mothers.
"Breastfeeding has many advantages for both the mother and baby. Breast milk provides ideal nutrition for the baby. It has antibodies to fight infections and promotes healthy weight gain.
"Breastfeeding can even reduce incidents of sudden infant death syndrome. The mothers will benefit too as it will enable them to lose weight, help in involution of the uterus and promote bonding between mother and baby, hence reducing postpartum depression,” she said.
Bernama, meanwhile, also spoke to some nursing mothers who shared their bitter experience of not being given access to proper facilities at their workplaces to express breast milk.
One of them, primary school teacher Fatin Sabrina Sanuzi, 24, said her place of work provided no breaks nor facilities for lactating mothers.
"I used to do it (pump breast milk) during my free time and sometimes even while I was eating,” she said.
Another lactating mother, who wished to be anonymous, said she used to work as a customer service executive at an e-commerce platform but resigned from her job after her employer instructed her to lactate in the washroom. "I was then forced to do it in the women’s surau but I didn’t feel comfortable as my breasts were exposed to the women who would come there to pray.
"And, when I requested lactation breaks, my superiors showed their dissatisfaction,” she said.
She later worked for another company that allocated a 30-minute lactation break but she lamented that her superiors did not show much support.
"Not many companies recognise lactation breaks as essential,” she said.
"I was disappointed when my team leader said he would decide when I should take my lactation break and the length of the break. Only a mother knows when it’s time to lactate and how long the process will take as it would depend on the amount of milk produced.” Her team leader, she claimed, also reduced the lactation break by 10 minutes.
"After some discussions with him, he allowed me to decide on my lactation break in accordance with the company’s rules, but my other superiors made me feel uncomfortable by asking about my whereabouts in work groups even after the breaks were plotted into my work schedule,” she added. - BERNAMA