NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 5 – Exclusive breastfeeding for at least 6 months is recommended for child health and development, but the lack of a supportive environment in workplaces can limit the ability of mothers to achieve this goal.
Exclusive breastfeeding rose from just 13 percent in 2003 to 61 percent in 2014.
Despite this national progress, mothers engaged in formal and informal work still face important barriers to breastfeeding.
In the majority of households in informal settings which includes slums, the majority of the working force eke their living through a cash-based economy.
Casual labor particularly domestic and self-employment is almost the only decent option that an urban poor woman has.
Systematic exclusion
We meet with Eupherine Nyabonyi, a breastfeeding mother of a five-month-old child.
Every day, she has to ensure that she goes to work failure to which there won’t be enough to feed the family.
As the world observes World Breastfeeding Week themed Enabling Breastfeeding: Making a Difference for working parents, glaring challenges emerge for breastfeeding mothers in informal employment.
Nyabonyi is a trader who sells snacks in Katwekera village in Kibra slums along the streets seldomly carrying his baby to work is usually hectic due to her work environment.
“When I wake up in the morning, I prepare and go to my business station which is along the street road. I sometimes leave her with her Dad because it’s usually very early in the morning. When his Dad is leaving for work, he usually leaves her in the house,” said Nyabonyi.
As a single employee in her nature of business, it’s usually a hurdle especially when you have to fend for your family with an exclusive breastfeeding child.
“For now she is young under exclusive breastfeeding. When for example I am going to the CBD to look for my business stock I have to return home quickly because she’s under exclusive breastfeeding. Sometimes the only way out is to go with her,” Nyabonyi stated.
Nyabonyi’s nature of job is usually demanding and rarely would she get some spare time to breastfeed her child due to lack of an ample environment.
“We have customers who are rude and quite fussy. Sometimes the baby is breastfeeding when attending to them,” she says.
“I can’t suddenly stop breastfeeding the child to attend to the customer. I have to choose whether to breastfeed the child or attend to the customer.”
But the 28-year-old mother of two is not only grappling with the lack of a supportive environment for breastfeeding but her destination of work is heavily affected when the country is under political instability.
During the frequent anti-government protests, in the biggest slum in Africa it is always a running battle between the police and demonstrators.
It’s a nightmare for business operators due to the downside of the protests.
“I leave close to the road and anything can happen during the protests. Incase teargas get to my house, what should I do? I was advised to give my baby raw eggs and you can imagine it’s a baby who has never consumed raw food. It’s really hard,” Nyabonyi said.
Promoting Exclusive Breastfeeding
Esther Opala, a nutritionist working with CFK Africa in Kibera Slums, is routinely involved in advocating for exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months and sustained breastfeeding for up to two years.
Esther says due to the cash-based economy in the slum area most mothers resume work two months after breastfeeding. It means that the child might be deprived of nutrition if continuous breastfeeding is ignored.
“We teach breastfeeding mothers from three months onwards on how to express their milk. We teach them how to store because for some they don’t have refrigerators. We teach them how to store for a period of 8 hours,” Opala said.
Esther admits that indeed they have faced challenges following up on mothers working in the informal sector to ensure they espouse exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months.
“Some mothers are hawkers and vendors and you will find them with their children at the workplace. We advise the mothers on hygiene measures during breastfeeding in such workplaces,” she said.
Extreme poverty in the slums means that breastfeeding mothers lack adequate food to eat, especially with the increased cost of living.
Esther says the lack of adherence to food nutrition has led to increased cases of malnutrition.
“The cost of living is high and so when you do the counseling on good nutrition some will tell you that they can’t afford it since they are living below a dollar in a day. So we teach them food security on how to plan with the little they get,” said Opala.
To reduce the persistent challenges, Nyabonyi is calling for a supportive breastfeeding environment for working mothers in the informal sector.
“If am I empowered there is no way I can leave my child behind while going to work at 5:00 AM.If am not empowered I can’t choose to stay in the house and breastfeed yet my children are sleeping hungry,” she said.
Poverty, systematic exclusion with regards to government policies and services; and lack of support for a breastfeeding urban poor mother top the list of the perceived limiting factors.
“We are advocating for organizations and government to have amenities supporting breastfeeding of the mothers. Children who are exposed to dirty environments have diarrhea and others are afraid of breastfeeding in public,” Opala said.
Optimal Breastfeeding
Breast milk is a nutritional powerhouse for infants, providing all the essential nutrients they need in the first 6 months of life.
It acts as a powerful immunization against life-threatening diseases, preventing 54% of diarrhea and 32% of respiratory infection episodes.
Moreover, breastfeeding can reduce infection-related mortality by 88% among infants less than 3 months old.
Kenya boasts a healthy rate of breastfeeding at the initial stages, according to a study, it decreases sharply from 84% of infants of age 0-1 month to 42% of infants aged 4-5 months.
But Kenya’s exclusive breastfeeding rates vary with age. For example, the percentage of children exclusively breastfed decreases sharply from 84% of infants age 0-1 month to 63% of infants age 2-3 months and, further, to 42% of infants from 4-5 months.
