Corry Elyda, Jakarta – Supporters of breast-feeding and government officials are encouraging state and private companies to provide proper lactation rooms at workplaces, saying that they not only benefit working mothers but also firms.

Indonesian Breast-Feeding Mothers Association (AIMI) general secretary Faradibha Tenrilemba said during a seminar, entitled Breast-Feeding Friendly Workplaces, on Tuesday that firms that provided lactation rooms for their working mothers could gain several advantages, specifically related to business productivity.

"Research reveals that breast-feeding increases a mother's productivity and the frequency of working mothers missing work decreases 27.3 percent after an office provides a lactation room," she said.

Faradibha said most working mothers wanted to be productive after taking maternal leave, but breast-feeding their babies was a call of nature. "Pumping milk for their babies left at home is one of the ways to facilitate that," she said.

Faradibha said breast-feeding also affected the productivity of working mothers in the long term.

"Breast milk is really good for a child's immunity, so it rarely gets sick. If their children are healthy, the mothers will not often skip work," she said.

Faradibha said that if mothers were facilitated and enabled to pump their breast milk, the turnover of working mothers would be low as currently many of them eventually quit their jobs.

She said, however, that many companies did not realize these benefits. It resulted in many working mothers in Jakarta pumping their milk in improper places like lavatories, storage rooms and prayer rooms.

Based on research by AIMI and Save the Children in three cities in 2012, of the total 37 government offices surveyed, only four or 10.81 percent provided lactation rooms. Meanwhile, only two or 11.11 percent of the total 18 private offices surveyed dedicated a special space for nursing mothers.

The Health Ministry's Food Consumption Development sub-general directorate head, Titin Hartini, said providing lactation rooms for breast-feeding workers during the six-month of exclusive breast-feeding and its continuation until the age of 2 was an obligation of every company.

Titin said that Law No. 36/2009 on health affairs stated that families, the central government, local governments and the public must support breast-feeding mothers by giving them facilities and time to do so.

Titin said that although the government had not determined the procedure to implement sanctions – ranging from verbal warnings to permit revocation – for those in violation of the law, she encouraged private and state firms to provide such rooms. "Having productive mothers who don't often skip work because their children are sick is also a gain, isn't it?" she said.

Titin said creating a lactation room was not difficult as the requirements were quite easy to meet.

"Companies need only spare a 3-by-4 meter room equipped with chairs, a table, a sink and a refrigerator to store the milk," she said, adding that they also needed an internal regulation for the use of the room.

Fanina Andini, a spokeswoman for electricity company PT Indonesia Power, which provides lactation rooms, said the implementation of the regulation was not hard but had a positive impact for the company.

"Providing lactation rooms enables the company to manage the time and the place, so that women workers do not do it just anywhere, anytime," she said, adding that the company gave one hour for working mothers to pump breast milk.

Fanina said that providing lactation rooms had also strengthened the bond between the management and the female workers as they felt that their needs were being met. "It is not costly, but the benefit is big," she said.