By Irene Best Nyapendi
Within one week of giving birth by C-section, a young mother needing to heal herself and nurse her newborn was called back to work. She had no choice but to report to her job as a part-time employee at a top university in Uganda because her livelihood depended on it.
The experience of this new mother is one of the many hardships faced by 21 women involved in the research on the plight of breastfeeding mothers working in Uganda higher education institutions. The mothers had given birth two years preceding the study done by five lecturers at Uganda Christian University (UCU).
The researchers – Mercy Amaniyo, Evas Kemigisha, Peter Kiwumulo and Solomon Mwije, led by Prof. Elizabeth Kukunda Bacwayo – found that the university (names withheld to comply with Research Ethics Committee guidelines) did not have a maternity protection policy or facility for breastfeeding mothers. Bacwayo called the lack of such a policy “risky” and “stressful” for both mother and newborn.
Bacwayo, head of the UCU Directorate of Post-Graduate Studies, observed that such experiences are a setback in the fight for gender equality. The research was inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #5 for gender equality, which emphasizes the need for equal access of employment opportunities to both males and females. However, Bacwayo noted that “a man will not experience” the barriers such as women in this study.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding as the most ideal food for infants in their first six months because it reduces infant morbidity. Experts say exclusive breastfeeding not only boosts babies’ health, but also ensures their optimal development because breast milk is the baby’s first immunization.
“Our research intended to find out if institutions have facilities that enable a woman to work and also exclusively breastfeed her baby with the question ‘If I give birth, will I be able to take care of my baby and still keep my job?’” Bacwayo said. The research aimed at examining both institution practices and policies.
Bacwayo and her co-investigators urged employers to make the working environment supportive for mothers to exclusively breastfeed their infants.
“These mothers would love to exclusively breastfeed their children, but their workplace doesn’t have places where they can breastfeed from. Worse still, some employers don’t give their staff maternity leave for the mother to have more time with their babies, particularly those who are part-time workers,” she said.
Bacwayo warned that institutions risk losing staff as some mothers might be forced to quit their jobs in order to have time with their babies.
The research found that in some workplaces, once a woman gives birth, the working environment becomes unfriendly. This makes it impossible for women and men to have equal access to employment opportunities.
At the university under study, the institution’s policy on maternity protection only covers the provision of a three-month leave to full-time staff, but part-time women are not entitled to the leave. The mothers interviewed included the teaching and non-teaching staff, both full-time and part-time staff.
The findings indicated that female lecturers report to work worried and stressed about leaving their babies at home. Most of the mothers then have divided attention which affects their productivity at work.
Kiwumulo said many times such mothers miss work or sometimes find themselves having to deprive their children of breast milk. “This affects the baby’s health and also psychologically affects the lecturer because they are not happy with being away from their babies that need to be breastfed,” he said.
Bacwayo said when she presented the findings at the Second Annual AfriChild Centre Conference in late February, she was shocked that most of the participants did not know about breastfeeding facilities and the role they play. “If we get more funding, we would like to do further research in other workplaces aside from higher institutions of learning – for example, those working in factories and offices,” Bacwayo said.
