Govt calls for breastfeeding in workplaces

The Jakarta Post, Tue, 09/27/2011

Given the rising number of female employees in their reproductive years, the health ministry has urged employers to accommodate breastfeeding for mothers in workplaces, to ensure optimal growth and development for babies.

“Sufficient attention is needed so that the status of working mothers does not become an excuse for stopping breastfeeding,” the ministry’s nutrition education and mother and child health director Slamet Riyadi Yuwono said on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Slamet said companies could provide breastfeeding time during work hours, a special breastfeeding area for mothers and their babies and facilities to pump and store breast milk in the workplace.

“Such activities can support mothers to breastfeed their children. Children are the successors of development, therefore we must give them a good environment to grow and develop optimally…,” he said.

According to the ministry, of the 40.74 million female workers in Indonesia, around 25 million are in their reproductive years or a period when they experience pregnancy, labor and breastfeeding.