Support female workers raising children

(Baonghean) - "Female workers and breastfeeding - Let's create a friendly working environment to support female workers to continue breastfeeding" is the slogan of the "World Breastfeeding Week" in 2015. Besides the efforts to create favorable conditions of units and businesses, the most important issue is still to raise the awareness of mothers themselves...

Ms. Phan Thi Huyen Thanh, Quan Bau Ward (Vinh City) is a sales employee of a private company. Although she works during office hours, since her child was 6 months old, she has mainly fed her child with milk instead of breast milk. According to Ms. Thanh, "My body has little milk, so my baby only had enough milk for the first 4 months, after that the milk was less and thinner. I think breast milk will only last for a certain period of time and will be bland and lacking in nutrients, so I gradually switched to formula milk for my child. Currently, there are many types of milk for children that supplement many ingredients to support intelligence and healthy physique, so I feel quite secure in my choice." Ms. Thanh's thoughts are also the thoughts of many mothers today when life is increasingly improved, explaining why many young mothers with good conditions choose to feed their children with formula milk instead of breast milk. As for female workers, life is still difficult, most of them still cannot ensure breastfeeding for many other reasons.

A female worker with a young child at Haivina Kim Lien Company expresses and stores milk to feed her child enough for meals at the Company's cabin.

Due to the nature of their work, young mothers who are workers in Bac Vinh Industrial Park have to be away from their children when they are not yet one year old. Because of being busy with work and not having anyone to look after her, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, a worker at Matrix Company, had to send her nearly 1-year-old daughter to her grandparents in Nghia Phuc (Tan Ky) to look after her. She shared: “When my child was over 6 months old, I went to work, although I got to leave early at 3pm, but because I was busy and had little time to rest, my milk supply gradually decreased. In about 1 month, my child would be 1 year old, at that time I would have to work overtime, sometimes coming home late at night, so my child could only breastfeed at night. Thinking about that, I decided to wean my child, send her back to the countryside, so that the midwife would have to come down to live with her.”

For the sake of making a living, many female workers accept to wean their children early. Some children are not breastfed in the first 2 years of life because the quality of workers' meals is not guaranteed, so the amount of milk is decreasing. But more worrying is that there are still female workers who are not fully aware of the benefits of breastfeeding, to maintain milk supply and take care of each meal for their children. For example, at Havina Kim Lien Company, since the end of 2014, the company has coordinated with the Provincial Labor Federation to install a cabin for expressing and storing milk at the workplace, to create conditions for female workers to express and save milk for their children to use gradually. Although the investment cost for this milking room is up to nearly 100 million VND, including milking machines, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc., up to now, only about 7 people use it each month. Meanwhile, the company currently has about 50% of female workers with young children out of a total of over 2,900 female workers working here. The number of female workers with children under 12 months old is over 300 people. According to Mr. Le Van Son, Chairman of the Havina Kim Lien Company Union, when the milk pumping and storage cabins were first installed, quite a few women with young children registered to use them. But now, the number is decreasing, although the company union regularly propagates and disseminates necessary knowledge to female workers about the benefits of breastfeeding and creates favorable conditions for women to pump and store milk on site.

Learning from female workers, the majority of young mothers still pay little attention to breastfeeding their babies enough.

meals and lasts for the first 2 years of life. Ms. Doan Thi Hoai, a worker at Havina Kim Lien Company, said: My child is now 9 months old. Since my child was 6 months old, he has only been breastfed from 4pm when I came home from work until evening. During the day, he drinks powdered milk and eats solid foods. Now, children who drink powdered milk are also rich in nutrients, so they are not afraid of malnutrition..."

Many female workers give reasons to justify not breastfeeding such as: due to working conditions, lack of time, breast milk is not as nutritious as formula milk and other foods, children over 1 year old are stronger, can be weaned... Awareness of the importance of breastfeeding is still the biggest obstacle that makes the rate of female workers breastfeeding still low. In 2012, the Labor Law increased maternity leave from 4 months to 6 months, creating conditions for women after giving birth to stay home and breastfeed their children exclusively for the first 6 months of life. To raise awareness among female workers about breastfeeding, in recent times, trade unions at all levels have increased indirect and direct communication activities in units and enterprises. Communication is integrated with the content of reproductive health care, mothers raising young children, about 30 sessions per year in enterprises with many female workers. Every year, the union also coordinates with the provincial Population Department to organize propaganda sessions on reproductive health and child care, and directly advise workers. To maintain breastfeeding until 24 months of age, from the end of 2014 until now, the provincial Labor Federation has coordinated with two enterprises, Minh Anh Kim Lien Garment Company and Haivina Kim Lien Company, to install cabins to support female workers with young children to help express and store milk on site, but the efficiency of use is not high.

These efforts have partly changed the awareness of female workers in breastfeeding. However, according to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Nhi - Vice President of the Provincial Labor Federation, in addition to limited awareness, the difficulties that female workers still face are primarily the lack of living conditions, so they have little opportunity to care about maintaining milk supply, many workers wean early to facilitate work... In the coming time, the union will regularly inspect, monitor and continue to direct the grassroots union to strengthen propaganda work to help female workers understand the benefits of breastfeeding and the effects of milk pumping and storage rooms. At the same time, we will mobilize businesses to have reasonable support policies for female workers with young children. At the same time, we plan to continue to survey the needs and install 2 milk pumping and storage cabins in 2 units in 2015 so that female workers have more conditions to care for their children during working hours. However, I think that, besides the efforts of units and businesses, it is more important that female workers are aware of the benefits of breast milk to build a "culture" of breastfeeding.

Doctor Que Thi Tram Anh, Head of the Department of Child Health Care and Malnutrition Prevention - Provincial Center for Reproductive Health Care noted: “Breast milk is the best food for children, especially newborns, because breast milk contains enough energy and necessary nutrients such as protein, sugar, vitamins and minerals suitable for the absorption and development of children. Breast milk cures many bacteria, increases children's resistance, and fights against some diseases that no other milk or food can replace. To have enough milk for their children, mothers need to ensure a nutritious diet from the time of pregnancy; after giving birth, they also need to eat enough nutrients, drink lots of water, milk, vegetables, and breastfeed regularly... In the condition that the mother has to share time with work, she should try to maintain at least 3 feedings/day for the baby. Breastfeeding exclusively for the first 6 months and continuing until 2 years old is a great benefit; children will be less likely to get sick, grow quickly, and develop comprehensively. and prevent malnutrition".

Dinh Nguyet