In his masterpiece, Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind, the Israelite historian, Yuval Noah Harari, writes about myths or "imagined realities." Imagined realities are all those things that we cannot be sure are real but which we have come to accept as real and indispensable to our lifestyle and which, when considered soberly and thoroughly turn out to be artificial constructs.
Maternal employment is like that. The imagined reality is that women must work outside the home to bring in money so that a certain pre-determined level of life-style can be entertained. Pre-determined by society.
The same society that says that women must cook and clean and wash inside the house but yet work outside the home for her to be considered productive (economists never consider work in the home in their economic equations).
She must accept snide remarks at the office, and work. Must work and get paid less than the man at the desk next to her. Work and smile and smell nice and look good.
And if you have to have children and want to breastfeed your children, who the hell send you? Well our government sent you! A caring government which says babies should be exclusively breastfed for six months. A caring government which also says breastfeeding mothers can only have four months of maternity leave. And puts nothing in place for mothers to breastfeed while working. With care like that, who needs enemies?
We not dealing with maternal leave here except to point out that Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is binding on all governments in the world with the exception of the USA and Somalia, (!) says that "women have the right to breastfeed their children" and that in the UK they now have 52 weeks maternity leave during which employees are paid 80 per cent of salary and that in the USA, from which most of our ideas now come, the Government allows 12 weeks leave, but unpaid.
Although women have been working at home and breastfeeding for centuries, the imagined reality is that women cannot work and breastfeed outside the home. Imagined reality is that expressing breastmilk at the office is too difficult. Stressful, on the person expressing and those around. No place to do it. No time to do it. Too much time lost. People will gross out. It'll take away from economic productivity.
What is the reality? Look at some of the economic benefits of breastfeeding. See the figures from the USA. Even there, if formula feeding mothers breastfed their babies for a full year, they would save: 25 million pounds of steel from 550 million formula cans; 6 million gallons of oil used in production, transportation and refrigeration; 135 million pounds of carbon dioxide (produced by the use of those 6 million gallons of oil) requiring 35,000 acres of forest to absorb; 2.5 million pounds of paper; 27 million gallons of milk (and the 465 million pounds of dairy feed needed to produce it) and 100 million tons of methane gas a year, an estimated 20 per cent of total annual methane production produced by cattle and affecting climate change!
We know the benefits of breastfeeding to mothers, babies and the rest of us–healthier mothers, healthier babies, healthier population and healthy environment. The key question is what are the benefits to employers, the "what's in it for me?" The immediate answers are:
A) Fewer sick days; decreased health claims; fewer days missed from work to care for sick children.
B) Increased employee loyalty, satisfaction and reduced turnover. This means an improved ability to attract and retain valuable employees and a family friendly image.
C) This translates into increased productivity. According to one programme being run by the insurance company AETNA, for every $1 they invested in breastfeeding support for their workers, they saved $3.
So what's the problem? First there is this business of imagined reality. Mother-friendly workplace? What's that? Yuh mad or what?
Second, there undoubtedly is a lack of understanding in society of the importance of breastfeeding. Because there hasn't been an open dialogue about breastfeeding, many employers aren't even aware that worksite lactation is important to their employees or that there's a need for support. Employers may also feel uncomfortable in discussing requirements for lactating employees, so the topic is never brought up. Women tell me they feel unsupported and stressed out trying to make arrangements by themselves.
Yet it is easy to create a worksite lactation programme. It's easy for employers to take the small steps, such as providing a private space and flexible break schedule that allows time for pumping. Women have always worked and breastfed. Combining working and breastfeeding is not a new concept and women are nothing if not amazingly good at adapting. That is a statement of respect and admiration.
What will it cost a business to provide a space for a mother who wants to express?
It's easy to start with a pilot programme to provide the basics: a small, private space and reasonable break time for employees to express breastmilk. Expansion, if decided, can continue by adding components such as education, flexible time and leave policies, and other amenities, as more information about employee needs is discovered.
In T&T the total cost to the employer to supply the basics in the workplace is around $1,000. Contact the Breastfeeding Association of T&T (breastfeedingtt.com) for more information. It's all been worked out.