Provide Breastfeeding Facilities To Working Mothers

KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 (Bernama) -- Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil Saturday urged working establishments to support a breastfeeding drive by providing facilities for working mothers to practise breastfeeding.
She said working areas like factories should provide a room and facilities for mothers to store their milk before they were being fed to their babies.
"If we don't give the proper support system, there is a possibility that these mothers wean off breastfeeding prematurely and indefinitely," Shahrizat told a press conference after launching the World Breastfeeding Week 2005 at Pantai Medical Centre here.
She said more mothers in this generation had succumbed to the stringent requirements of their working establishments by depriving their babies of breastfeeding.
"For these simple reasons we need to encourage both mothers and employers to understand the logic of breastfeeding by providing a room for mothers to exercise this need," Shahrizat said.
Meanwhile Pantai Medical Centre had produced a 140-page Breastfeeding Management Manual as an integral part of the implementation of the Ten Steps of Successful Breastfeeding.
It had been recognised as the first private hospital in Malaysia to be awarded the Baby Friendly Hospital status.
The success in achieving this accreditation since 2001 was from the compilation of practicing all the Ten Steps of Successful Breastfeeding as required by the World Health Organisation, United Nations Children's Fund and the Ministry of Health Malaysia.
Shahrizat said that she would ensure that all the 53 National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) clinics throughout the country would be equipped with the manual.