Nutrition, Diet and Health Tips

Working moms ( Those not on remote terms) spend atleast 8 hours away from their babies.

The Kenyan Constitution provides for paid maternity leave of 3 months after childbirth to help the mom heal and recover from child birth as well as take care of her new born baby.

WHO on the other hand recommends Exclusive Breastfeeding for the first 6 Months of life and continued breastfeeding with other Nutritious Foods for the next months upto the 2nd year of life as research has shown the tremendous health benefits of Breastfeeding to both the mom and the infant.

So what happens to the next 3 months that the mom is supposed to continue feeding the baby as advised and at the same time report to work for official duties? https://youtu.be/UddL9ms08SM

As a nutrition professional, this is where we ‘loose’ most of our moms because they feel that they cannot sustain lactation with the long hours of separation and I cannot blame them because lactation policies and support in the country are lagging way behind time.

It’s the 21st century. A woman should be able to express milk and even store it SAFELY in her work station. But is that really happening in Kenya?

Both the public and private institutions are failing Kenyans by not providing this. For the 8- 14 hours that the mom is in that unsupportive environment, lactation will be compromised.

In line with this year’s Breastfeeding Awareness week theme: Enabling Breastfeeding for Working Parents, we are urging the stakeholders to help with revision and implementation of the existing policies to help us support our moms to promote exclusive breastfeeding which has been shown to have a positive impact on Productivity, Cognitive Functions, Disease Preventive abilities and more.

In this video, https://youtu.be/UddL9ms08SM, I give insights as well on how to improve and support breastfeeding if you are a working mom.
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Signed with love
Your favourite Dietitian
Lilian Mumina
Mumina Wellness Solutions.