Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, the Executive Chairman, Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (BSPHCDA), has said that the state will enact a law to take care of working mothers and students.
Mohammed disclosed this on Wednesday at a media dialogue in commemoration of the breastfeeding week, organised by UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office, in Azare, the headquarters of Katagum Local Government Area.
According to him, the law will also take care of the six months or four months maternity leave for breastfeeding mothers and students if eventually approved by the State House of Assembly.
He said this was necessary because exclusive breastfeeding was key to human lives and child’s survival, adding that breast was the first immunisation of a child as he came to the world.
“Let us look at a breastfeeding mother, let us create an enabling environment for mothers to thrive.
“Let us ensure that we inform the fathers, grandfather and caregiver that a working class mother or student is an important mother and should have a safe place, a privacy in her working place and flexible time for her to go home and breastfeed her baby.
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“I want to use this opportunity to inform you that Bauchi State has agreed to send a law that would take care of both the six months maternity leave and create an enabling environment for working class mothers.
“I want to use this opportunity to inform you that Bauchi State has agreed to send a law that would take care of both the six months maternity leave and create an enabling environment for working class mothers.
“We have talked about provision of creches which are places in every working place that are supposed to be provided for working mothers to have privacy for her to breastfeed her baby,” he said.
He added that the law, when enacted, would enable working mothers and students to have time flexibility to go home and breastfeed their babies after the resumption of the six or four months maternity leave in the state.
Also, Dr Tushar Rane, Chief of UNICEF’s Bauchi Field Office, said that optimal infant feeding was a cornerstone for human capital development while poor Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices would bear major risks to child survival and socio-economic growth.
He said this year’s World Breastfeeding Week brought attention to workplace breastfeeding.
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“Women make up 20 million out of the 46 million workforce in Nigeria and 95 per cent are within the informal sector, while the formal sector only employs 5 per cent.
“Shockingly, only nine per cent of organisations have a workplace breastfeeding policy, with only 1.5 per cent in the public sector.
“Workplace challenges to breastfeeding are one of the primary factors responsible for early cessation of breastfeeding.
“Women require sufficient time and support to breastfeed successfully. For working mothers, juggling between tasks and breastfeeding may be nearly often impossible,” he said.