According to Pan American Health Organization (OPS) global society must act so that the work and breastfeeding are a guaranteed right. More than 500 million working women do not have essential maternity protection in national laws and only 20% of countries require employers to provide paid breaks and facilities to breastfeed or express milk.
The maelstrom of work, labor laws and obstacles to hiring women due to leave issues for pregnancy, lactation and menstruation put a barrier to growth and job stability for the female gender and pregnant people. That’s why, PAHO emphasizes that companies and governments must establish laws that guarantee maternity leave of a minimum of 18 weeks and adaptations in the workplace to breastfeed safely. In addition, it seeks to raise awareness about the importance of dividing up between men and women.
Breastfeeding is vitally important for the development of society, since it provides vital benefits for the health and nutrition of children who in the future will be part of the working population. Thus, If children have proper nutrition in their first stage of life, later they will have more tools in terms of health and neurodevelopment.
In addition, the health of lactating people is also at stake. These have a 26% lower risk of breast cancer and 37% lower risk of ovarian cancercompared to those who do not breastfeed or do so less frequently, according to PAHO data.
In addition, giving the breast has other health effects:
Equivalent to an estimated time of 1800 hours in just one year. This is equal to a full-time job with three weeks of vacation, according to the maternity app, Peanut.
Milk production consumes 35% of body energy, To measure this amount, Western Missouri Medical Center indicates that brain activity consumes only 20%.
Equivalent to running 8 kilometers dailys (Western Missouri Medical Center)
Besides, Breastfeeding an infant for six months reduces the risk of leukemia by 19% (Twincities Bc)
In Argentina the Law 20,744 establishes 90 paid days of maternity leave, these can be taken immediately after delivery or 45 days before and 45 days after. But the norm does not contemplate jobs in an irregular situation, monotributo, nursery for boys and girls and spaces for breastfeeding -taking into account that the essential period to breastfeed an infant is six months-
This content was originally published on RED/ACCIÓN and is republished as part of the “Human Journalism” program, an alliance for quality journalism between RÍO NEGRO and RED/ACCIÓN.