Lactating mothers deserve 18 weeks maternity leave – Head of Breastfeeding Programme

Managers of the National Breastfeeding Programme have reiterated calls for all employers to allow their employees to enjoy the benefits of maternity leave to the fullest.

Although Ghana currently has 12 weeks as the maternity leave period, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) indicates that only 9% of women enjoy this benefit.  Also, about 91% of women are estimated to be working in all kinds of spaces.

Head of the National Breastfeeding Programme, Madam Gifty Ampah, in an interview with 3news implored Parliament and the Employment and Labor Ministry to look at the bill that seeks to increase the number of weeks for maternity leave.

She wants the number of weeks to be increased a bit to help mothers achieve exclusive breast feeding for at least 6 months.

“We have a whole 91% of women who are working in all kinds of spaces, but are not given maternity leave. And so we want to encourage all corporate people to ensure that their women enjoy maternity leave and then when they come back, we make the necessary arrangements to support them to continue exclusively breastfeeding their children till the six months.

When you do that as an employer, it saves you a lot on cost. You know the mother herself is relaxed at work because she can either express or bring her baby to work. And then she doesn’t have to give you all kinds of excuses to be with her baby,” Madam Ampah explained.

According to her, the GHS is advocating for 18 weeks maternity leave.

“We also want to implore our parliamentarians the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to look at that bill that increases the number of weeks. We are asking for 18 weeks, but the ILO says we can only get up to 16 weeks, but we want you to give us 18 weeks so that we can look after the future leaders,” she insisted.