Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Working mothers in Indonesia are still facing barriers to exercising their rights to breastfeed their babies, as employers are somewhat reluctant to take up bold policies in promoting breastfeeding among their workers, an activist says.
The Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers' Association (AIMI) chairwoman, Mia Sutanto, said on Thursday that by taking just a few simple steps, employers could actually provide breastfeeding-friendly workplaces, and maintain the productivity of their workers.
By setting up clean, comfortable and private lactation rooms, for example, employers can ensure that their workers can go back to work, while at the same time continuing to breastfeed their newborns, she said.
Research jointly conducted by AIMI and Save the Children shows that very few offices, both public and private, give mothers the support they need to breastfeed their babies.
Of the total 37 government offices surveyed, only 4, or 10.81 percent of offices provide breastfeeding rooms, while 8 offices, or 21.62 percent provide a room, but the space is not specially-designed for brestfeeding. Only one of the total 37 government offices had a written policy regarding lactating rooms.
The situation is much worse in private offices. Only 2, or 11.11 percent of the total 18 private offices surveyed in the study dedicate a special space for the use of nursing mothers.
Three, or 16.67 percent of the total surveyed offices have a space for nursing, but it is not specially designed to accommodate lactating mothers. None of the private offices have written policies on lactation rooms.
Nur Amalia, an NGO activist advocating health issues, has encountered many difficult situations each time her organization encouraged private companies to adopt breastfeeding-friendly policies.
"We have encouraged factories to give their workers a proper lactation room and a reasonable amount of break to either breastfeed their babies or to pump their breast milk. But they are not encouraged to do so, as most of them prefer to first optimize profits over broader health concerns," she said.
According to the 2010 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas), the percentage of infants aged 0-6 months old who were exclusively breastfed was found to be only 15 percent, which was very low.
The Government Regulation (PP) No.33/2012 on exclusive breastfeeding, officially approved on March 1, aims to improve the breastfeeding practices in the country.
It regulates several issues, including: early initiation of breastfeeding; breastfeeding promotion; support at health care facilities, and the ethical promotion of formulas and other infant foods. Under the PP, both public and private work places, as well as public facilities are required to have lactation rooms available.
The PP is the implementing regulation of Law No.36/2009 on health which stipulates that unless there is a medical indication, every child has the right to exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life to achieve optimal growth.
Article 200 of the 2009 law stipulates that anyone who commits a violation in preventing mother and child from exclusive breastfeeding can face one year in jail.