Philips unveils findings on breastfeeding barriers for mothers

Philips Africa today unveiled the results of its latest research focused on supporting new mothers in their breastfeeding journey, to mark World Breastfeeding Week (1-7 August2015).

The study, which surveyed over 400 working mothers in Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya, identifies key barriers for breastfeeding including unsupportive work environments and cultural influences, and is an outcome of Philips’ pledge to the United Nations Every Woman Every Child initiative.

The reality for working mothers in urban Ghana and Kenya

The Philips study, supported by research company Dr. Monk aims to uncover the key breastfeeding obstacles for working women in both Ghana and Kenya in order to identify opportunities to support and empower them.

Limited early initiation of breastfeeding, unsupportive work environments, and cultural influences, lack of access to breast milk expression facilities, poor daycare facilities, and impeding beliefs were among the challenges identified in the research.

Across the board, it was found that mothers know that breastfeeding is the right thing to do. Yet the ability to balance work and motherhood in a busy African city is hard and 52% of the women surveyed had to go back to work within three months, making breastfeeding or expressing difficult.

In addition, pressure to work long days in order to make a sufficient income, stressful lives, and no space to express milk in the workplace, are all contributing factors to diminished breastfeeding rates.

Although 69% of women surveyed knew the importance of expressing breast milk if unable to breastfeed directly, the biggest barriers for new mothers wanting to express included lack of space to express comfortably, access to technology like breast pumps, cooling and sterilization equipment and advice and coaching on the correct techniques to breastfeed enabling comfort and ease for both infant and mother.

Philips will utilize these findings in order to help countries, including Ghana and Kenya, with the healthy development of their infant population.

Philips aims to use its rich innovation heritage and baby feeding expertise (through its extensive Philips Avent range) to encourage and empower women to combine going to work with breastfeeding.