Latest update January 1st, 2025 1:00 AM
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Mothers could get six months maternity leave
There is a possibility that mothers in the CARICOM Region would have six months of maternity leave to ensure new born babies are exclusively breastfed. This is part of a drive to tackle childhood obesity.
Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, Chief Medical Officer, who recently attended the launching of Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), said that mothers in Guyana are given three months maternity leave, which contradicts the six-month exclusive breastfeeding the Ministry of Health promotes.
Dr. Shamdeo Persaud
“This was one of the things that came up at CARPHA… how we could start stimulating Governments to open the discussion about our mothers. We can’t have mothers going back to work in three months and we are insisting on and think there is a value of breastfeeding for six months so the two things do not coincide,” he said.
Dr. Persaud said that the Ministry of Health would have to advocate for this but of course there could be some economic costs since Guyana is still a growing society. Taking into consideration that many women may not have formal employment contracts Government may have to prepare social security programmes, he added.
He said, “Those are some of the things we want to get onto. If we have cross regional policies Governments are more likely to comply. And countries must have standard.”
According to Dr. Persaud, childhood obesity starts in the womb depending on the kind of nutrition mothers take and to the extend they maintain health. Following the deliveries of babies, breastfeeding is important. Children who are breastfed are less likely to be hooked on sugar or high calorie foods.
“Sugar and salt are acquired tastes and if you don’t expose them to sugar they like what you gave them and they grow up. Breastfeeding transitioning into complementary feeding is a much more acceptable way of controlling children’s weight,” he said.
Guyana sits on the technical advisory of CARPHA and Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsarran is on the board of CARPHA. This is a new public health agency that came into being on January 1, 2013. Prior to CARPHA there were five regional health institutions to address various aspects of health of people in the CARICOM Region.
There were Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, Caribbean Environmental Health Agency, Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute and Caribbean Health Research Council.
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