A new Bill which improves conditions for breast-feeding employees will be out of date before it has even passed into law, breast-feeding experts have said.
The Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2003, which is at Seanad stage, provides an entitlement for breast-feeding breaks for mothers, without loss of pay, until their children are four months old. If this is not possible, then employees must be entitled to shorter working hours.
However, last year the Government endorsed a World Health Assembly policy that all mothers should be advised to breast-feed exclusively for six months and then be encouraged to combine breast-feeding with solid food, until the child is two-years-old.
But these guidelines may not be achievable without legislation enshrining working women's right to breast-feeding breaks for the first six months. Most workers use the breaks to express milk, rather than breast-feed, as they don't have time to return home to their babies.
Ms Maureen Fallon, national breast-feeding co-ordinator, said the entitlement to breast-feeding breaks must be extended to at least six months if the new policy is to be successful and that it was still possible to change the Bill to reflect the new policy.
"It's policy since last year but it's now a matter of communicating it to the general public," she said. Issues such as labelling of baby formula also had to be worked out.
Research has shown that breast-fed babies have a lower risk of infections and may be less likely to become obese. Mothers often lose weight acquired during pregnancy quicker and breast-feeding also lowers the risk of pre-menopausal breast cancer.
This State has one of the lowest breast-feeding rates in the world. Less than 40 per cent of mothers here start out breast-feeding a new baby, compared with 69 per cent of women in Britain. Norwegian mothers have one of the highest rates, with 97 per cent still breast-feeding after one month, and 80 per cent after six months.
A spokeswoman for Cuidiú, the Childbirth Trust, said lactation breaks for at least six months were essential in encouraging working women to breast-feed, as well as support from the community and health professionals.
