Maternity Protection for Working Women

UNICEF and the World Health Assembly recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby's life followed by sustained breastfeeding with complementary foods. This recommendation has been shown to have many health benefits, including reducing the incidence and severity of diseases such as acute respiratory infections and diarrhea. For mothers, some of the benefits of breastfeeding include lower rates of anemia, pre-menopausal breast cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer, osteoporotic fractures later in life, and longer birth intervals.

For many working mothers around the world, the period of maternity leave is inadequate for putting these recommendations into practice Ð and many women have no maternity protection at all. In 1999 the International Labour Office (ILO) began the two-year process of revising its 1952 Maternity Protection Convention no. 103. The first Maternity Protection Convention was adopted in 1919. Once adopted and ratified by each member state, ILO Conventions must be implemented into national legislation. Since this Convention has not been revised for almost 50 years, it is of the utmost importance that the Maternity Protection Convention 2000, which will be discussed and adopted in June, ensures the best possible protection for mothers and their babies for many years to come. To ensure long-term benefits to all sectors of our societies, the Convention needs to reflect the current and future reality of women's essential roles as mothers and valuable employees.

Breastfeeding advocates concerned with the health and well-being of mothers and their babies, as well as workers' organizations, are campaigning for a Convention which will set an adequate international standard. The key points for advocacy are:

• Adequately paid maternity leave after childbirth of at least 12 weeks, including compulsory leave for the first six weeks as a minimum. IBFAN and its partners advocate 26 weeks maternity leave in line with the recommendation to breastfeed exclusively for about six months. The draft Convention currently has a provision for 12 weeks paid maternity leave including an unspecified period of compulsory leave.

• Breastfeeding breaks to enable the mother to continue breastfeeding after her return to work. These breaks should be at least 30 minutes twice per day and be counted as work time. The draft Convention currently has an Article providing for one or more paid daily breaks for breastfeeding. Unfortunately, there is a possibility that this provision might be moved from the legally-binding Convention to the Recommendation which is not legally binding for Member States who ratify the Convention.

• Other important areas of maternity leave include a woman's right to safe working conditions before and after childbirth, freedom from discrimination and harassment, and fear of losing her job.

IBFAN and its partner organizations are committed to promoting the highest possible standard of protection for working women, particularly at this time of intense competition in the global marketplace. A great deal of work has already been done at international and national level and we need to intensify these efforts for the deciding session of the ILO Conference in June and for implementation by governments after the new Convention has been agreed.

What you can do as groups and individuals:

• spread the word about how maternity protection benefits all of society: men and women, employers, workers and government.

• urge ministries of health and labour to get together and talk about the benefits of good maternity protection;

• inform women and their partners of their existing rights and work to improve these rights through information meetings in the community and work with the media (TV shows, talks on radio, articles in newspapers, etc.)

IBFAN has published a fact sheet, Breastfeeding: Everyone Benefits.

A lobbying kit "Maternity Protection 2000: It's for All of Us" (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) can be found on www.icftu.org