New plans to encourage women to breastfeed in the office

New plans to encourage women to breastfeed in the office

New working mums will be able to bring their babies to work and their companies will be asked to provide them with special breastfeeding facilities under Government plans to be announced this week in an as-yet-untitled White Paper.

The plan comes just weeks after the European Parliament voted in favour of the Pregnant Workers Directive, which would introduce mandatory paid breastfeeding breaks for new mothers.

According to reports in the Daily Mail, a range of companies of all sizes (large and small) will be involved in a pilot scheme to put the policy to the test. They will be required to provide a room or a screened-off area to give mothers privacy while they breastfeed, and will be expected to be ‘flexible’ over when women can take breaks. They will also need to provide a new fridge or cool box for the exclusive storage of any breast milk expressed by pump to be used later.

The plan could see babies being brought into work to be fed or women being allowed breaks during the working day to go home to breastfeed. If Ministers deem it successful, it could become standard practice, but employers fear it could be made mandatory.

Under the pilot scheme, the Government will test whether making space available to women to breastfeed or express milk helps improve breastfeeding rates. The scheme, intended to promote the health benefits of breastfeeding for longer, will be concentrated in less affluent areas where the number of mother’s breastfeeding is statistically low.

Do you think being able to breastfeed in the office would encourage you to breastfeed? What do you think of these new measures? We’d love to hear your thoughts in our chat forum.

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40plusmum's profile picture
By 40plusmum 6 months ago Newbie
I'm trying for a baby atm and plan to go back to my civil service job afterwards putting baby into the onsite nursery. Being able to take breastfeeding breaks would be ideal for me but not sure if the miserable old goats that manage the section/team will be happy about it lol
jennifer1986's profile picture
By jennifer1986 1 years ago Newbie Lucky ChatPRO Like
But thats the point!! Having children will ultimately change your life. No matter how long you wait until you go back to work, if the baby is ill, you'll be off, if baby has an accident at nursery you will be there, etc etc etc. The point is not that its supposed to make things more annoying, the point is that provisions should be put in place that make is easier for women to return without having to compromise an important aspect of motherhood AND for employers to finally get the messages that having children is inevitably a part in a lot of womens life they'll have to deal with ...


As much as I am a fan of feminism (and I do believe women are capable of everything a man can do) etc, a lot of the sh!te we have to deal with nowadays women have brought onto themselves. lets face it. Women and men arent the same. Because we arent the same, is why it doesnt work. What we need to do is, embrace the differences, and make them work for us and around us, rather than against us.

I think this is great, and if they dont take the mick with it and make it feasible and cost effective, it could really work. Im also for onsite creche facilities for bigger places :)
yes i agree a child does bring alot of change i have 2of them but i feel maybe in a few more years down the line when there are a few less old fashion men around demanding we all go back to the kitchen then it will become a wonderful thing lets start with the creches first ease them into it alittle bit more before dumping it on them instantly cause no we arent the same we have women trying to be men get high up on the comand ladder and get funny with any woman in their work force who dare put a family before a career and this is something that also needs to change this opinion some people have that we pop out a sprog and lose all inteligence or ability to do our jobs which is why it needs easing in with the creches first and milk expressing before just suddenly thrown at people
xxcelestexx's profile picture
By xxcelestexx 1 years ago Newbie Chat
This seems like a good idea on paper..but in practice not so much! What happens the baby after its been fed?? Your hardly going to drop baby off in childminders and pick it up every time it needs feeding?

The old way this would work would be if there was child minding facilities within the company.
Thats the way I understood it. That the baby is dropped in for a feed, being fed then taken away again.
Onsite creche facilities would be fab for that! x
AshleyF09's profile picture
By AshleyF09 1 years ago
This seems like a good idea on paper..but in practice not so much! What happens the baby after its been fed?? Your hardly going to drop baby off in childminders and pick it up every time it needs feeding?

The old way this would work would be if there was child minding facilities within the company.
xxcelestexx's profile picture
By xxcelestexx 1 years ago Newbie Chat
good idea lets make women having children even more annoying for offices i lost my job just before i found out about my first and couldnt even find a tempory job whilst pregnant as they wanted some1 who wouldnt be gone more times than they were there (morning sicknes midwifes antinatal the list goes on....) we women get the blunt end of the stick anyway if one person in the office gave birth then decided to be a stay at home mum the next woman to get preg gets treat like thats what they are going to do bringing this in will cause more strain on what we women have to fight against as although we are begining to be seen as equal this is still a very sexist world we live in an no matter what your qualifications are or how well you do your job if you have to break off for half an hour or more to feed your baby well you can guess were im going with this rant........
But thats the point!! Having children will ultimately change your life. No matter how long you wait until you go back to work, if the baby is ill, you'll be off, if baby has an accident at nursery you will be there, etc etc etc. The point is not that its supposed to make things more annoying, the point is that provisions should be put in place that make is easier for women to return without having to compromise an important aspect of motherhood AND for employers to finally get the messages that having children is inevitably a part in a lot of womens life they'll have to deal with ...


As much as I am a fan of feminism (and I do believe women are capable of everything a man can do) etc, a lot of the sh!te we have to deal with nowadays women have brought onto themselves. lets face it. Women and men arent the same. Because we arent the same, is why it doesnt work. What we need to do is, embrace the differences, and make them work for us and around us, rather than against us.

I think this is great, and if they dont take the mick with it and make it feasible and cost effective, it could really work. Im also for onsite creche facilities for bigger places :)
jennifer1986's profile picture
By jennifer1986 1 years ago Newbie Lucky ChatPRO Like
good idea lets make women having children even more annoying for offices i lost my job just before i found out about my first and couldnt even find a tempory job whilst pregnant as they wanted some1 who wouldnt be gone more times than they were there (morning sicknes midwifes antinatal the list goes on....) we women get the blunt end of the stick anyway if one person in the office gave birth then decided to be a stay at home mum the next woman to get preg gets treat like thats what they are going to do bringing this in will cause more strain on what we women have to fight against as although we are begining to be seen as equal this is still a very sexist world we live in an no matter what your qualifications are or how well you do your job if you have to break off for half an hour or more to feed your baby well you can guess were im going with this rant........
xxcelestexx's profile picture
By xxcelestexx 1 years ago Newbie Chat
I think that this is a good way forward in normalising women having babies again, and working around it, opposed to it being seen as a problem, or inconvenience. We're women, we're supposed to be mothers and have children. It's only a recent development that sees women (and rightly so) in all careers.

In too many, and I would guess most work places, a woman having a baby is seen as a major inconvenience and the woman is treated accordingly.
This could be a way forward to even more flexibility (where appropriate) and just generally a way of thinking outside of the box.

I have never understood why its ok, for smokers to have 10 cigarette breaks a day because the addiction calls, but if a woman needs to start half an hour late on mondays and wednesdays so she can take her kids to school its absolutely impossible.
I say think it through a bit more but its brilliant that women are being supported so much now.
Raccey's profile picture
By Raccey 1 years ago Newbie Lucky Chat Like
Not sure how this would work in My office. I live 11 miles from work so to go home breast-feed then come back would take 2 hours, can't see them letting me do that. Plus petrol would cost me a fortune.
There are also no childcare facilities in the office so unless I kept the baby in my draw that wouldn't work either.
They do however give people breaks to express and provide a cool box for the milk.
barbie82's profile picture
By barbie82 1 years ago Newbie Chat
I breastfed Phryn for 10 months and even though I am pro breastfeeding I think this is going a bit far. I mean if the office has a daycare (I know them some of them do) then it would be fine but for companies who don't then it's going to make it very difficult, especially smaller companies who really can't afford to give lot's of paid brakes.

I do agree with what someone else said about giving breastfeeding mothers somewhere to express but to have the baby coming in to work it's going to be very distrcting.

In the US most women have to go back to work only 6 weeks after they've had there baby and they manage to pump and brestfeed. Maybe if there was more help with teaching mothers how to pump effectively this would be a better plan of action.
nixhendy's profile picture
By nixhendy 1 years ago Newbie
has anyone given a though for the babies in all this? yes brest is best but do they really need to be in a unstimulating enviroment just because the mum want to breastfeed, and what if it is stressful enviroment do babies really want to be around all the stress and their stressed mum. it is good that they want ot help mum's to feel they can breast feed and work but this must add extra presure. I think these is enough presure on mum to go back to work early after the birth, my mum stayed at home until I started school and I definatly benifited from this. I understand that some mum's have the higher paid job and would go insain if they didn't go back to work but were not all like this, you only get on change to be with your babies and too many people feel forced to go back to work before they are ready. what if bosses use this as a way of getting you to go back when your not ready? this scheme will only work forsome mum's and should not be forced on the rest.
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