Breastfeeding: Let’s mark progress and address gaps
By Faith Mwende, August 6, 2025Breastfeeding is one of the most natural and vital processes in the animal kingdom. In humans, it transcends biology, serving as a foundational act of nurturing, bonding, and ensuring early childhood health.
Across African cultures, including here in Kenya, breastfeeding has long been respected and supported within families and communities, with mothers traditionally surrounded by supportive networks offering both practical help and cultural wisdom.
Yet modern life introduces new challenges. Breastfeeding in today’s world, particularly in public spaces and the workplace, is often stigmatised, under-supported, or ignored altogether.
Many mothers face silent battles: from limited facilities for expressing milk to the social discomfort of breastfeeding in public.
This year’s World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7, 2025) carries the theme: “Prioritise Breastfeeding: Create Sustainable Support Systems”.
This resonates deeply with our national journey and the urgent need to move from policy intentions to everyday practice.
Kenya has made commendable strides in supporting breastfeeding mothers. The Health Act of 2017 mandates that employers provide breastfeeding stations and paid breastfeeding breaks, up to one hour per eight-hour workday.
The Breastfeeding Mothers Bill, 2024, has further strengthened these rights, emphasising access to designated lactation rooms, adequate breastfeeding time, flexible work arrangements, freedom from discrimination, provision of baby changing facilities, and the right to breastfeed in public.
We have seen trailblazing examples. Kenya Railways deserves commendation for installing lactation booths at SGR stations, setting a standard for public service infrastructure.
However, implementation remains uneven. Many workplaces, shopping malls, churches, bus terminals, and other public institutions still lack proper lactation spaces.
Baby changing tables are rare, and women are often left to improvise in unsafe conditions.
Even where laws exist, awareness and enforcement are minimal.
As we mark World Breastfeeding Week, it is time to recommit ourselves to action. Here are three key proposals.
First, employers should go beyond legal compliance by establishing clean, private, well-equipped lactation rooms; ensuring access to breast pumps and refrigeration; offering flexible work schedules; and creating clear HR policies that protect lactating mothers.
These practices improve morale, enhance retention, and contribute to child health outcomes.
Second, public institutions and private businesses should integrate baby-friendly infrastructure: lactation rooms in malls, bus stations, markets, stadiums, and religious institutions; baby changing stations in restrooms; and visible signage affirming the right to breastfeed publicly.
This is about inclusion, dignity, and public health.
Third, beyond infrastructure, societal attitudes must evolve.
Media campaigns, school education, and religious messaging can normalise breastfeeding in public and promote understanding.
A breastfeeding-friendly society starts with each of us: how we react, what we say, and what we support.
The writer is a Social Scientist