Why rate of exclusive breastfeeding remains low in Kenya

Women in Kenya have been unable to exclusively breastfeed their babies due to the short maternity leave granted by the majority of employers in the country.

Despite the World Health Organization recommendation that babies be put on breast milk within the first hour of birth and exclusively breastfed for at least six months, most employers in the country give three months maternity leave.

Data from the Health ministry shows that the women workforce in the country is 62 per cent, with 52 per cent of mothers made to return to work within three months after giving birth.

Of more concern is that even though Kenya allows for paid maternity leave, women in the private sector are offered short term contracts as a way of avoiding maternity leave with some getting six weeks compulsory leave but not maternity leave.

In such scenarios, any woman who gets pregnant fails to have their contract renewed.

As a result, just only 61 per cent of children aged below six months are exclusively breastfed with one per cent not breastfed at all.

The International Labour Organization on Maternity Protection Convention 2000 No 183 and 191 which Kenya is a signatory to recommends at least 14 weeks (98 days) of paid maternity leave, one or two breaks daily or a reduction in work hours in order for women to breastfeed their children.

The convention also recommends that where practicable, provision of facilities for nursing under adequate hygienic conditions at or near the workplace.

“Several studies in Kenya show that women work on average 16 hours. They experience other challenges which prevent them from complying with exclusive breastfeeding. Working long hours can be a challenge. In Nairobi the working hours are made longer by the traffic jams,” nutrition officer at the Health Ministry Mary Kimani said.

“In Kenya, maternity leave is still three months, that is 12 weeks and not 14 weeks for most public sector and therefore we have not implemented the ILO Convention no 183 of 2000. However parts of this convention have been adopted and integrated into policies and laws,” she added.

For instance, the Employment Act, 2017 provides for the establishment of lactation stations in the workplace and the provision of breaks for nursing employees. 

This is in addition to the regular times off the meals to breastfeed or express milk which should be counted as compensable hours worked provided that such intervals shall not be more than one hour for every eight hour working period.

In Nairobi for instance, a status of workplace support implementation among 66 private companies conducted in 2016 found that 7.1 per cent had no room to express milk at work while just 22 had breastfeeding stations or were renovating.

“Breastfeeding can avert 13 per cent of neonatal deaths for under-fives and if you combine it with appropriate complimentary feeding you can avert 19 per cent of deaths,” nutrition officer at the ministry Rose Wambu said.

For under-fives in terms of short term effect, it helps reduce infectious disease and morbidity and hospitalisation while for long term it has helped reduce overweight and obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes and increased intelligence in children.

“When it comes to maternal you can see that there is lactational amenorrhea where during that period of breastfeeding ovulation is suppressed and the breastfeeding can actually act as part of stopping pregnancies and also breast cancer and diabetes.”

An ideal lactation station at the workplace should be private, convenient and comfortable for the mother as well as being sufficiently equipped. 

The equipment and supplies required in such a room include comfortable chairs that fit next to a table, lockable lockers, refrigerator, a sink with running water, disinfecting solution for clean-up of spills, labels of various stations, waste basket, door signage and information, education and communication materials developed by the Health Ministry among others.

-Edited by SKanyara