Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitudes of Managers, Coworkers, and Employed Breastfeeding Mothers

Abstract

Employer attitudes and practices toward breastfeeding mothers are discouraging overall. Mothers who believe that breastfeeding whileemployed cannot be done withouta considerable amount of additional work and stress may not even consider breastfeeding. Although it is known that lower income women tend not to breastfeed while employed, the relationship between type of employment and sustaining breastfeeding has not been clearly explained. Manywomen identifyemployment as a barrier to breastfeeding. Some elements of a workplace environment supportive of breastfeeding have been identified, including private space witha lockingdoor (other than a bathroom stall), time to express milk at work, and adequate refrigeration.ln relation to employers, monetary reasons (Le.. decreased productivity) are most frequently cited for not supporting breastfeeding. Only a small percentage of the research on employed breastfeeding mothers has focused on the workplace. Further research is needed to determine how breastfeeding can be beneficial to the mother, the infant, and the employer.

What Employers and Health Care Providers Can Do to Support Breastfeeding in the Workplace

“…This result is in agreement with other research showing reported attitudes often are not reflected in employer policies and practices. 26 As illustrated in the highlighted themes, this study's informants commonly reported demand as an influential factor in the degree of WBS they would provide. All informants shared the belief that there was little demand for WBS regardless of the size of their business.…”

“…18,19,22,23 On the business side, employers hold a range of attitudes about breastfeeding employees, offer varying degrees of support for breastfeeding in the workplace, and express concerns about the difficulties of providing formal breastfeeding support, including monetary constraints, challenges of providing breaks, and limited space. 19,[24][25][26][27] Even when generally positive, employer attitudes about breastfeeding have not translated into practices supporting breastfeeding mothers in the workplace. 20 This paradox can be analyzed within the framework of Fishbein and Ajzen's Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA).…”

Policies Aren’t Enough

“…Previous research has also suggested the importance of interpersonal communication in addition to policies but has provided few specific solutions. 7-10,12,14,18-20,25,26 The participants in this study suggested that mothers bring this issue to the attention of employers. However, as this study and others suggest, employees may not feel comfortable broaching the issue, which may keep employers unaware of employees’ needs.…”

“…One potential barrier to continued breastfeeding can be challenges encountered when mothers return to work. 6-12,18-20 Therefore, the objective of this project is to describe interpersonal communication about workplace breastfeeding support.…”

Working in a Paid job Effects on Breastfeeding in Turkey: A Qualitative Study

“…Women who spend most of the day at workplaces need support of their colleagues during breastfeeding. [32] Dabritz et al reported that having colleagues who support breastfeeding in workplaces contributed positively to longer maternal breastfeeding periods. [33] In our study, it was determined that some of the women interviewed did not receive support from their colleagues while using legal breastfeeding breaks.…”