U.S. Lags behind Other Countries in Protecting Breastfeeding in the Workplace

The Council on Contemporary Families worked with researchers from Harvard University and McGill University to examine public policies for working families in 180 countries. While the United States fared well in protecting its workers from discrimination in the workplace, it fared poorly in protecting the family lives of workers. The PRNewswire report states:

Support for breastfeeding

– 107 countries protect working women’s right to breastfeed; in at least 73 of these the breaks are paid. The U.S. does not guarantee the right to breastfeed, even though breastfeeding is proven to reduce infant mortality.

That is why the proposed legislation in Oregon is such a good idea and why we need more laws like the one recently passed in Oklahoma. Not only that but it would be nice to get guaranteed paid maternity leave.

Leave around childbearing

– Out of 173 countries studied, 168 countries offer guaranteed leave with income to women in connection with childbirth; 98 of these countries offer 14 or more weeks paid leave. Although in a number of countries, many women work in the informal sector, where these government guarantees do not always apply, the fact remains that the U.S. guarantees no paid leave for mothers in any segment of the work force, leaving it in the company of only 4 other nations: Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland.

That is pitiful! The really sad thing is that the lack of paid maternity leave translates into lower breastfeeding rates among impoverished women (who cannot afford to take unpaid maternity leave) and those are the women who can least afford the cost of formula!