U Family reiterates its calls for office building owners and employers to provide suitable nursing space at workplaces for new mothers to continue breast feeding upon returning to work
In response to the newly-introduced Code on Accessibility for the Built Environment (the new Code) by the Building & Construction Authority (BCA), NTUC U Family is heartened that more publicly-accessed buildings frequented by families (e.g. large shopping centres, theme parks, community clubs, sports complexes), will have a family-friendly built environment for families with infants and young children with the provision of nursing rooms. This additional support would greatly encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies when they are outside home. The revision to the Code thus reflects a shifting attitude towards a baby-friendly society.
More importantly, U Family noted that the new Code encourages the good practice of offering spaces in buildings for nursing women through promotion of Universal Design and partnership with organisation such as U Family. U Family has been an active advocate for friendly workplaces to help and support working mothers continue with breastfeeding after returning to work under its Project Liquid Gold. We hope that there can be less barriers for this group of new mothers who wish to continue with breastfeeding upon going back to work. Thus, we would like to reiterate our call for office building owners and employers to provide suitable nursing rooms spaces at workplaces that are shielded from view and free from intrusion and also to render reasonable break time for female employees to express their breast milk.
We understand that different organisations and workplaces have different requirements for nursing rooms depending on the profile of their employees, and they may not know how to set up the necessary rooms for these breastfeeding mothers. While the Code does not indicate specific locations or supporting facilities required for the lactation room, we are pleased that a comprehensive list of recommendations are provided in the Appendix to guide designers and building owners in providing a proper lactation room, and we think that this would be most helpful to building owners or employers who wish to take the first step.
We hope to continue to advocate and raise awareness to new mothers that returning to work should not be a key barrier to breastfeeding and we call on employers and building owners to support back-to-work breastfeeding mothers through providing flexible lactation breaks and functional nursing corners that will help to create family friendly workplaces.
Breastfeeding is a health choice, not a lifestyle choice. We hope, where possible, our babies can be given the gold standard of infant food, which is free.
Ms Toh Hwee Tin
Director
NTUC U Family
