New mothers, workplace challenges

A survey conducted by ProEves, a leading childcare and maternity solutions provider, and Medela India, leading manufacturer of breast pumps and nursing accessories, revealed that one of the most common reasons why new mothers switch from breastfeeding to formula feeding once they get back to work, is the lack of breastfeeding support and facilities at their workplace. 

The survey conducted across 38 leading organisations under various sectors like FMCG, Manufacturing, IT, ITES, E-commerce, Financial Services highlighted that new mothers who resume work post their maternity leave have two major concerns- breastfeeding at work and the facilities provided by the employer for doing so. It also showed that corporates are investing in their female employees, through provision of childcare support and paid maternity leave, in order to retain them when they become mothers.

Some findings of the survey:
The World Health Organisation recommends mothers to exclusively breastfeed their infants for the first six months and continue breastfeeding along with solid up to two years to build a healthy foundation for the child. Recognising the need to encourage mothers to breastfeed, The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 was passed by the Government of India for increasing the maternity leave period from the previous 12 weeks to 26 weeks. 

This survey by ProEves and Medela India attempted to study childcare and maternity practices in detail. Ketika Kapoor, co-founder ProEves states the survey clearly calls out Breastfeeding support/infrastructure as a practice with the lowest challenge yet the highest impact for companies when compared to other practices like extended leave, flexible working, maternity onboarding and we expect more companies to embrace such provisions for their returning mothers.  This is the first comprehensive database on maternity and childcare support practices in India.”