Govt. optimistic about introducing expanded maternity leave

Aug 23, 2016 News

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…but more needed to be done to promote idea – Health Minister

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has long recommended exclusive breastfeeding for newborn infants for the first six months of their lives. But health sectors have been advocating for the continuance of breastfeeding for babies even two years and beyond, with appropriate and safe complementary foods.
Guyana’s health sector is certainly not opposed to this notion. This is despite the fact that mothers here are only granted three months maternity leave following delivery. There has, however, been advocacy for the expansion of maternity leave, and this has been gaining Government’s attention.
This is according to Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, who disclosed that “the implementation of the expanded maternity leave for mothers is something Government has been discussing and we hope to make way with it very soon.” He believes that mothers here should be eligible for at least six months to encourage the recommended exclusive six-month breastfeeding period for babies.
“I am happy that this issue made some amount of highlight and coverage in the media and not so much by the Ministry of Public Health,” said the Minister as he observed that the Social Protection Ministry has also been canvassing the same idea.
But the expanded maternity leave has for a number of years been gaining keen attention. In fact, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Shamdeo Persaud had told this publication in 2013 that there is a possibility that mothers in the CARICOM Region would have six months of maternity leave to ensure newborn babies are exclusively breastfed. This, he informed then, was being touted as part of a drive to tackle childhood obesity.
According to Dr. Persaud, childhood obesity starts in the womb, depending on the kind of nutrition mothers take and to the extent they maintain their 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.
Discussion in this regard, he disclosed, was forthcoming when he attended the launching of Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in Trinidad.
“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’d explained.
Moreover, Dr. Persaud informed that the Health Ministry would have to advocate for this, considering that there could be some economic costs, since Guyana is still a growing society. Taking into account that many women may not have formal employment contracts, Government may have to prepare social security programmes, he added.
He said too, “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 standards.”
But according to Minister Norton, the response from the business sector to this idea has not been heartening.
“I was listening to some call-in programmes and (the responses) what it told me is that we have so much more work to do if we are going to advocate for this expanded maternity leave,” the Public Health Minister noted.
He singled out Canada as a country that currently has in place an expanded maternity leave programme that permits mothers to remain at home for one year. As such, he is convinced that expanding the local maternity leave programme to at least six months may be very attainable here.
In fact he noted that efforts should be made to encourage procreation so that Guyana is not faced with a situation like Japan where the population is growing older as the birth rate has been rapidly declining.
“Let us hope that we do not fall into that situation,” said the Minister, as he disclosed that “while in our rural areas the rate is supposed to be a large percentage of our population being younger, in our urban area it is like the developed world where we have an aging population.”
The Minister made these remarks as he emphasised the importance of the expansion of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, where mothers are encouraged to breastfeed their babies exclusively for the first six months. He disclosed that in 1992 when the breastfeeding programme was launched here, it was evident that the culture of exclusive and prolonged breastfeeding was on the decline.
“It was no coincidence that Guyana also had relatively high infant mortality and morbidity rates due to diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory tract infection and malnutrition,” Minister Norton explained, as he stressed how vital breastfeeding is.
In addition to providing baby with necessary nutrients that can protect their health, there are also many health benefits for mothers as well. It has been deduced that breastfeeding helps to release the hormone oxytocin, which helps the uterus return to its pre-pregnancy size and may reduce uterine bleeding after birth. Breastfeeding also lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancer and may lower a woman’s risk of osteoporosis.

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