The Impact of Maternal Employment on Health of Children Under Two Years Old

Abstract

Introduction: Women’s labor force participation has risen around the globe in the pastfew decades, maternal employment can affect children’s well-being through multiplechannels, including income effects, decisions about health inputs, and time spent withchildren. Overall, women’s employment affects child health widely. Aim of work: Tostudy the impact of maternal employment on breastfeeding practice, nutritional status,and motor development of children under two years old. Materials and methods: Ananalytical cross-sectional study was conducted during the period from May 2018 toDecember 2019, on 400 children under two years old who were attending a PediatricsClinic or Vaccination Unit at the Primary Health Care Centers at Shebin Alkom district,Menoufia governorate. The children who fulfilled inclusion criteria were involved in thestudy, and their mothers were interviewed using an interview questionnaire. Physicalexamination and complete blood count were done for children. Results: Workingmothers represented 25% of the studied sample. There were statistically significantdifferences between employed and unemployed mothers as regards education, income,and socioeconomic standard. There were statistically significant differences betweenthe studied groups in breastfeeding practices; exclusive breastfeeding, frequencyand duration of breastfeeding were lower among employed mothers, the rate ofhospitalization and different infections, i.e., gastroenteritis, otitis media, and repeatedthroat infection, were significantly higher among children of employed motherscompared to children of unemployed mothers (p-value ˂0.05). There was no statisticallysignificant difference between children of employed and unemployed mothers as regardmotor development, dentation, weight for age, length for age, and weight for length, while anemia was significantly higher among children of unemployed compared toemployed mothers. Conclusion and recommendations: Maternal employment has anegative impact on breastfeeding practice and increase infectious diseases occurrenceand hospitalization rate among children. The study showed that there was no effecton motor development and nutrition status of the children. The government has toencourage the implementation of national legislations, which mandated the employersto provide their employees with childcare centers and nurseries near to the workplace.