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World  Bank data places the rate of exclusive breastfeeding for children under six months in Kenya at 61 per cent as of 2014.

The country is among the few countries that have met the World Health Assembly target of 50 per cent exclusive breastfeeding set to be achieved by 2025. Among mothers who face great challenges in a bid to exclusively breastfeed are working mothers.

Female workers in Kenya are entitled to three months paid maternity leave after delivering, but breastfeeding proves to be a challenge once they return to work.

Not easy

When she got her second born baby in 2015, Martha Kimkung remembers vowing to exclusively breastfeed. She had attempted to exclusively breastfeed her first born child born six years earlier, but that dream was short-lived.

She had managed to breastfeed her firstborn for only two months before returning to work. After her maternity leave, Martha who was then working in the aviation industry returned to the office that had no lactation facilities, worked long hours and felt severely fatigued. 

At work, Martha would express milk in a store, wrap it well and then place it on the floor to ensure that it did not go bad. “There are days I felt like I could quit my job to be with my baby,” she says.

Yet she persevered until she was able to exclusively breastfeed for five months and three weeks. “Getting that far was not easy. It took a lot of determination and support,” she says. 

Experiencing these challenges firsthand motivated her to start Career Mothers For Exclusive Breastfeeding Campaign CAMFEB in 2016. The organisation advocates and supports working mothers to exclusively breastfeed.

The organisation has been pushing for the implementation of the Health Act 2017, article 71 and 72, which supports introduction of lactation stations at work places to support exclusive breastfeeding. 

Toothless law

The Act requires that all employers establish lactation stations adequately equipped with facilities including hand washing equipment, cooling facilities, electrical outlets, a small table and a comfortable chair for nursing mothers.

Under the Act, employers are also required to give nursing employees regular times off for meals, to breastfeed or to express milk.  

But despite there being a legal mechanism for the introduction of lactation stations, few organisations have complied two years down the line. In the absence of lactation rooms mothers are forced to express milk in unhygienic conditions including inside toilets. 

According to Rose Wambu, Baby Friendly Initiatives Officer at the Ministry of Health, only an estimated 20 government institutions have introduced lactation stations and about 50 in the private sector.

The challenge, she says is that currently the law has no mechanism to compel organisations to set up lactation stations.

“Without regulations to go with the law, it is toothless. We need regulations that will facilitate implementation of the Act and ensure action is taken against those who don’t comply,” she says.

Currently, the Ministry is developing regulations and conducting sensitisation of the Act in counties.

Among other bodies targeted by the Ministry in the sensitisation process is the Architectural Association of Kenya so that when they design buildings, they do so with lactation stations in mind.

Toyota Kenya, Isuzu, Safaricom, Unilever, Ministry of Health and Kenya Breweries Limited are some of the organisations that have complied with the Health Act 2017 by setting up lactation stations.