Group seeks six-month maternity leave for women at workplace

In commemoration of World Breastfeeding Week, a group, Alive & Thrice, has called on the government and private sector to extend maternity leave from three months to six months for nursing mothers.

The group also seeks provision of two crèches at workplace to support working mothers/families to exclusive breastfeeding.

The Project Director, Alive & Thrice, Victor Ogbodo made the call at a workshop with the theme: Dissemination of Toolkit on Workplace Breastfeeding Support Programme in Nigeria.

Ogbodo said: “Alive&Thrive, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and managed by FHI 360 aims to save lives, prevent illness, and improve the health of mothers, children, and adolescents by using evidence-based approaches in collaboration with governments at the global, regional, national, and community levels.

“Today is a momentous occasion, an important hallmark in our quest to partner with the private sector to implement the National Baby Friendly Initiative in the workplace; it is a partnership that seeks to provide an environment that enables Nigerian workers to give their babies the best start in life as an investment in the future workforce.

“Two years ago, Alive& Thrive Nigeria partnered NECA’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) on a pilot initiative which included sensitization of Chief Executive Officers and Human Resources Managers in the private sector on maternity protections as well as the provision of two creches/lactation rooms to support working mothers/families to exclusively breastfeed their babies for six months.