Health Promotion Service, Hugh Jardine Building, Eastern Campus Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia.
Int Breastfeed J. 2011 Nov 30;6:19. doi: 10.1186/1746-4358-6-19.
Women's return to work can be a significant barrier to continued breastfeeding. Workplace policies and practices to promote and support continued, and longer duration of, breastfeeding are important. In the context of the introduction of a new breastfeeding policy for Area Health Services in New South Wales, Australia, a baseline survey was conducted to describe current practices and examine women's reports of perceived organisational support on breastfeeding intention and practice.
A cross sectional survey of female employees of the Sydney South West Area Health Service was conducted in late 2009. A mailed questionnaire was sent to 998 eligible participants who had taken maternity leave over the 20-month period from January 2008 to August 2009. The questionnaire collected items assessing breastfeeding intentions, awareness of workplace policies, and the level of organisational and social support available. For those women who had returned to work, further questions were asked to assess the perceptions and practices of breastfeeding in the work environment, as well as barriers and enabling factors to combining breastfeeding and work.
Returning to work was one of the main reasons women ceased breastfeeding, with 60 percent of women intending to breastfeed when they returned to work, but only 40 percent doing so. Support to combine breastfeeding and work came mainly from family and partners (74% and 83% respectively), with little perceived support from the organisation (13%) and human resources (6%). Most women (92%) had received no information from their managers about their breastfeeding options upon their return to work, and few had access to a room specially designated for breastfeeding (19%). Flexible work options and lactation breaks, as well as access to a private room, were identified as the main factors that facilitate breastfeeding at work.
Enabling women to continue breastfeeding at work has benefits for the infant, employee and organisation. However, this baseline study of health employees revealed that women felt largely unsupported by managers and their organisation to continue breastfeeding at work.
女性重返工作岗位可能是持续母乳喂养的重大障碍。促进和支持持续母乳喂养和延长母乳喂养时间的工作场所政策和实践非常重要。在澳大利亚新南威尔士州地区卫生服务机构推出新的母乳喂养政策的背景下，进行了基线调查，以描述当前的实践，并研究女性对组织支持母乳喂养意向和实践的感知。
2009 年末，对悉尼西南地区卫生服务机构的女性员工进行了横断面调查。在 2008 年 1 月至 2009 年 8 月的 20 个月期间休过产假的 998 名符合条件的参与者邮寄了一份问卷。问卷收集了评估母乳喂养意向、对工作场所政策的认识以及可用的组织和社会支持水平的项目。对于那些已经返回工作岗位的女性，进一步询问了她们对工作环境中母乳喂养的看法和做法，以及结合母乳喂养和工作的障碍和促成因素。
返回工作是女性停止母乳喂养的主要原因之一，60%的女性打算在返回工作时母乳喂养，但只有 40%的女性这样做。支持母乳喂养和工作主要来自家庭和伴侣（分别为 74%和 83%），很少有组织（13%）和人力资源（6%）的支持。大多数女性（92%）在返回工作时没有从经理那里获得有关母乳喂养选择的信息，很少有人可以使用专门为母乳喂养指定的房间（19%）。灵活的工作选择和哺乳假，以及使用私人房间，被认为是促进工作时母乳喂养的主要因素。
使女性能够继续在工作中母乳喂养对婴儿、员工和组织都有好处。然而，这项对卫生工作者的基线研究表明，女性在继续在工作中母乳喂养方面感到基本上没有得到经理和组织的支持。
