Further support needed for breastfeeding mothers
In December 2018 Canadian actress Rachel McAdams caused a media storm by posing for a high fashion Versace photo shoot while pumping breast milk for her son. Inspired by this, on March 2, 2019, a group of women gathered their breast pumps, their children and their best outfits to have a similar photoshoot on Hong Kong Island. The organizer, Heather Lin, first posted this suggestion in the “Hong Kong Breastfeeding — Women Only” Facebook group and the large number of positive feedbacks she received in a very short time encouraged her to see through organizing this shoot. As a member of this group, while I was excited by the idea I was also concerned that this might be perceived by some as an attention seeking stunt. So I contacted Heather Lin, who confirmed that one of the intentions behind this is indeed attention seeking but not personal fame for participants. She explained that this gathering aims to draw attention to the issues faced by breastfeeding mothers in Hong Kong. In particular, she hopes it will generate greater public support for breastfeeding mother to pump for their babies in public.
The benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and baby, especially in the first six months after giving birth, have been proven by numerous scientific studies. However, a study published in 2015 (by Dorothy Li Bai, Daniel Yee Tak-fong and Marie Tarrant in the Maternal and Child Health Journal) showed that while an increasing number of Hong Kong women will breastfeed after giving birth (87 percent in 2016 compared to 19 percent in 1980) very few continue to do this exclusively for the WHO recommended six months period. According to this study, the main factors contributing to mothers stopping to breastfeed are short maternity leave and long working hours. Conversely, the study found that later return to work, shorter working hours, parental childcare and higher maternal education are associated with more likelihood of extended duration of exclusive breastfeeding.
In the past decade, the Hong Kong government has taken various measures across different policy areas to directly support breastfeeding women. In June 2018 the land sale conditions for commercial and retail sites were revised, requiring developers to include lactation and baby care facilities in new offices, malls, food outlets and similar locations. The government also made a commitment to adopting similar requirements for its own premises. In the same month, the government proposed amending the Sex Discrimination Ordinance to explicitly protect mothers from discrimination against breastfeeding.
Furthermore, the proposal announced by the government in October 2018 to extend maternity leave to 14 weeks is in line with International Labour Organization recommendations. This is expected to encourage more mothers to breastfeed longer than they currently do.
In an ideal situation, these measures combined would give mothers more time to establish confident breastfeeding habits before returning to work. And they would be more likely to breastfeed for longer periods of time because they will have designated places to breastfeed their babies or express milk. They would also be protected against discrimination.
A study by Brown (2017) concluded that breastfeeding must be considered a public health issue that requires investment at a societal level. It also highlighted that countries that have adopted a multicomponent public health strategy to increase breastfeeding levels had significant success. All the above suggests that the government is making good progress in doing exactly what this study recommends.
However, the nature of workplace incidents that are reported by mothers in various formal and informal support groups, suggests that government level interventions alone — or even high-profile, community-driven events such as the “pumping photo-shoot” — will not be enough to curtail workplace behaviors and practices that make it difficult for mothers to continue breastfeeding their children. For example, workers who complain about the noise that pumping machines make or the unfairness of the “extra breaks” that breastfeeding women take. In order for breastfeeding mothers to feel more included in the workplace, employers need to make concerted efforts to raise awareness about the need for creating a supportive environment for mothers and the fact that this, in turn, will contribute to a healthier society which all can benefit from. The Employers’ Guide to Establishing Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace available from the Family Health Service is a good starting point for employers of any size or industry.
In order for breastfeeding mothers to feel more included in the workplace, employers need to make concerted efforts to raise awareness about the need for creating a supportive environment for mothers and the fact that this, in turn, will contribute to a healthier society which all can benefit from.