Exclusive Breastfeeding Among Working Mothers; An Examination of the Policy Framework in Ghana.

Abstract

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is continually gaining ground among health discourse around the world. With the World Health Organization (WHO) increasingly focusing on the practice across the world, EBF continues to be one of the greatest concerns of global health policy advisors, practitioners, and researchers. Research has been conducted exclusively on the health benefits of EBF to both the nursing mother and newly born infants. WHO recommends that to fully actualize the health, economic and socio-cultural benefits of EBF, mothers should engage in at least 6 months of practice focusing solely on breastfeeding new-born babies with only breast milk except for medicines. Policy framework in Ghana, especially the Labour Act 651 calls for a minimum of 12 weeks of paid leave for mothers upon delivery. The Act stipulates that aside from receiving salaries while on leave all benefits that come with working in organizations should be accorded them duly. However, there seems to be a gap in the provisions of the Labour Act 651 and WHO’s recommendation of at least 6 months of EBF. Thus, it appears working mothers are hugely disadvantaged while observing the recommendations of EBF and the provisions of Act 651. This study, therefore, focused on understanding this conundrum presented by both provisions. The focus of the study was to explore the viability of the Labour Act 651 (2003) in light of the WHO recommended period of Exclusive Breastfeeding. The study adopted the qualitative approach to research in studying the phenomenon. A total of 10 working mothers sampled using the purposive sampling technique were interviewed for the study. The findings of the study indicate that although knowledge of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding were high amongst the sampled mothers, the prevalence of the practice of EBF as recommended by WHO was quite low. Furthermore, the study finds that having to resume work after 3 months of leave truncated plans for completing EBF amongst most mothers. Other mothers were unable to engage in the practice for longer periods because of health-related issues. The study concludes that the Labour Act 651 (2003) is not viable with global standards of EBF practice. The study recommends stakeholder engagements to discuss means of ensuring working mothers are able to complete EBF in light of the numerous advantages it possesses to both mother and child.