Over 2,500 rooms for breastfeeding

THE number of breastfeeding rooms, known as “Care for Mother Huts,” at work places and public areas around the city has exceeded 2,500, project initiators the Shanghai Trade Union said yesterday.

Many of the rooms, the first of which were introduced five years ago, have evolved into grounds for sharing maternity knowledge alongside their basic function of providing private spaces for breastfeeding mothers.

While the project mostly covered state-owned companies and government organizations at the beginning, it has gradually benefited more women in private companies. The trade union said it aims to increase the number of breastfeeding rooms in those companies and office buildings in the future.

In the Pudong New Area, HHUO Culture is a private company that runs over 200 Care for Mother Huts.

Chu Linlin, general manager of the company, said the number of such rooms was increased by 136 percent in 2017 over the previous year due to the growing needs of companies and breastfeeding mothers.

“We had 99 larger huts of over 20 square meters in size by the end of 2017, some of which were equipped with televisions, projectors and massage seats,” she said.

Chu said her company organized 30 public events for women from about 500 companies in those facilities in 2017.

In Jing’an District, Geng Yan, a mother of two, one 13 years old and the other five, was one of the first beneficiaries of the breastfeeding room in Heng’an Tower.

“It’s a pity that when I had my first child I wasn’t able to enjoy the convenience of breastfeeding like I did with my little daughter,” she said.