Mothersbond commends FG on four months maternity leave policy

A leading firm on new mother and baby care, Mothersbond Limited, Nigeria has congratulated new mothers (and mothers to be) for the recent extension of available maternity days from 90 to 120 days (four months).

Mothersbond Chief Executive, Michael Osuji, in a statement issued in Lagos and signed by the company commended the government for approving 30 more days to strengthen the bond mothers are developing with their newborns.

Osuji said: “While we note that this is a huge step in the right direction, we would continue to engage with the relevant stakeholders in government, health care experts and the media to push for at least six months fully paid maternity leave. The underlying goal of this is to ensure the moms have no hindrance to exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months, which helps to give babies the best start in life, physically, mentally and emotionally.

“Although our ideal recommendation is six months maternity leave, in the meantime, they can augment with breastfeeding pumps which they can use to express their milk, store the milk appropriately and have their caregiver feed when baby is hungry. This way, they still ensure their little one gets the full nutrition of their milk even while Mom is away at work. A good pump is the Mothersbond super-fast breast milk pump. It saves time by expressing milk fast. Many women in our part of the world don’t know about how useful breast milk pumps are. It helps ensure the chain of exclusive breastfeeding is not broken for the first six months and subsequently.

“We hope the government will not stop at this, but make sure it is followed through especially by private sector employers.”