Analysis of the Needs of Breastfeeding Mothers in Workplace

Abstract

Indonesia’s infant and children under-five mortality rate has decreased recently, however, it is still higher than in other Southeast-Asia countries. One strategy to decrease those rates is by increasing the coverage of Exclusive Breastfeeding. The coverage of Exclusive Breastfeeding in Indonesia was 50.67%. However, there were several obstacles for mothers to breastfeed their babies, namely breast problems, lack of knowledge and skill, barriers due to being working mothers, and failure practices in health facilities. Working mothers are usually faced with workloads, no time for expressed breastmilk and no facilities to express/pump and stored the breastmilk in the workplace. The purpose of this study is to know what breastfeeding mothers need in the workplace. This is a descriptive qualitative study with in-depth interviews with employees in a government institution by snowball sampling to find the informants. The main informants are 14 female employees (pregnant, having babies aged 0-6 months, and breastfed). There were 7 triangulation sources (colleagues, superiors and health officers in the institution's health facilities). We did thematic analysis by creating and coding all transcriptions. As a result, 12 informants expressed breastmilk in the workplace, 1 informant expressed breastmilk at home, and 1 informant did not do it because there were no facilities at the office. Informants expressed the breastmilk in their working room, other working rooms which are quieter or not to be used, superior working room, bathroom, kitchen, prayer room dan private car. Some informants stored the breastmilk in the refrigerator, which is available at the office, while others used their cooler bags. Based on the result, the informants expect that the office will provide a lactation room, give permission to express breastmilk between working hours, and having maternity leave, especially for contract workers who did not know exactly about their leave entitlements.