Abstract
BackgroundIn recent years, the creation of supportive environments for encouraging mothers to breastfeed their children has emerged as a key health issue for women and children. The provision of lactation rooms and breast pumping breaks have helped mothers to continue breastfeeding after returning to work, but their effectiveness is uncertain. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of worksite breastfeeding-friendly policies and work-related factors on the behaviour of working mothers.MethodsThis study was conducted at a large Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer in August-September 2003. Questionnaires were used to collect data on female employees' breastfeeding behaviour, child rearing and work status when raising their most recently born child. A total of 998 valid questionnaires were collected, giving a response rate of 75.3%.ResultsThe results showed that 66.9% of survey respondents breastfed initially during their maternity leave, which averaged 56 days. Despite the provision of lactation rooms and breast pumping breaks, only 10.6% mothers continued to breastfeed after returning to work, primarily office workers and those who were aware of their company's breastfeeding-friendly policies.ConclusionIn conclusion, breastfeeding-friendly policies can significantly affect breastfeeding behaviour. However, an unfavourable working environment, especially for fab workers, can make it difficult to implement breastfeeding measures. With health professionals emphasizing that the importance of breastfeeding for infant health, and as only females can perform lactation, it is vital that women's work "productive role" and family "reproductive role" be respected and accommodated by society.
Highlights
In recent years, the creation of supportive environments for encouraging mothers to breastfeed their children has emerged as a key health issue for women and children
Research setting and subjects The research setting is Company T, a large semiconductor manufacturer with 10,000 employees in Hsinchu Science Park in northern Taiwan, which is one of the world's most significant areas for semiconductor manufacturing, similar in importance to Silicon Valley. This company was selected because it was the first semiconductor manufacturer to provide lactation rooms and breast pumping breaks for working mothers, which was an uncommon practice at the time the survey was conducted
Almost half of women whose children were more than three year's old, and 49.7% of those who had worked for the company for ten or more years, did not initiate breastfeeding
Summary
The creation of supportive environments for encouraging mothers to breastfeed their children has emerged as a key health issue for women and children. The provision of lactation rooms and breast pumping breaks have helped mothers to continue breastfeeding after returning to work, but their effectiveness is uncertain. While the number of new mothers in the workplace increases, an early return to work and inconvenient workplace conditions discourage women from breastfeeding or cause them to discontinue breastfeeding early [1,2,3]. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life [4]. The International Labour Organization (ILO) recommends a period of maternity leave of not less than 14 weeks [7]. In Taiwan, most companies provide only eight weeks of maternity leave. To bring Taiwan in line with WHO guidelines, effective worksite strategies needed to be implemented to encourage new mothers to breastfeed in the workplace
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