Only 32 Pct of Working Mothers Breastfeed Their Infants

Jakarta (Antara) - Only about 32 percent of working mothers in the formal sector breastfeed their infants in Indonesia, showing the low percentage of mothers who give breast milk to their babies, according to a press statement. According to the press release from the Graduate Medical Program, Department of Community Medicine, made available here on Tuesday, about 45 percent of working mothers in the formal sector stop giving breast milk to their infants before their babies reach the age of four months. In the meantime, almost 80 percent of mothers working at factories did not breastfeed their infants. According to Dr Ray Basrowi MKK, there are several factors that cause why working mothers did not maximally breastfeed their babies. Among the factors, he said, is their feeling of concern after leaving their jobs for three months during labor. "They are concerned with their jobs they have left for three months and are afraid of being leaving their work so often," he said. He said that they actually need not worry about leaving their jobs because the government had guaranteed that mothers could breastfeed their infants in a special room in their workplaces. (*)