Murang’a County has opened the first lactation station for working mothers at Kirwara Sub-County Hospital to support breastfeeding children born to hospital workers.
When the county marked World Breastfeeding Week 2024 last week, Kandara sub-county director of education Philomena Githire underscored the importance of breastfeeding, describing it as vital to the lifelong good health and well-being of women and children.
She stated that the Health Act 2017 stipulates that all employers shall establish lactation stations at the workplace adequately equipped with the necessary equipment.
“The act requires support for breastfeeding women at work, establishment of lactation stations within the workplace and provision of flexi working hours for breastfeeding women thus promoting the health and welfare of female breastfeeding workers.”
She called upon mothers to breastfeed as advised, saying breastfeeding supports a healthy and productive society and infants exclusively breastfed for six months are well nourished and at a lower risk of contracting diseases.
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For her part, Murang’a County Health Coordinator Nancy Waitherero highlighted the importance of breastfeeding and called upon all members of the society to support breastfeeding mothers and ensure they can breastfeed their children as required.
She called upon all other employers to establish such workplace stations to support breastfeeding in compliance with the law.
“This station is a requirement by the law and all work places employing young mothers should start allocating such spaces so as to support breastfeeding.”
For his part, Joel Mwaura of Nutrition International (NI) said the station was financed through a partnership between the Murang’a county government and NI.
Mwaura said the two partners have been working together through a matching fund model dubbed Domestic Resource Mobilisation to increase financing for low-cost, high-impact Nutrition interventions geared towards reducing child malnutrition in Murang’a.
