Breastfeeding has proven to be highly beneficial to mother and child in the short and long term when it comes to overall health.
For working mothers, breastfeeding can be twice as taxing and is why the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights is making strides such as collaborating with various entities like the City of Greenville to ensure that they can be productive moms and productive employees.
On Thursday, after a presentation from Dr. Jameshyia Ballard of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, the city’s Human Resource Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the council consider the addition of a breastfeeding accommodation to its employee policy.
Ballard initially spoke with city officials about adopting a breastfeeding ordinance for the city, but the organization’s focus pivoted to implementing breastfeeding policies and procedures for city employees.
She highlighted various resources and examples that would assist the city with implementation.
Along with that, Ballard highlighted the benefits of breastfeeding for babies and mothers.
Breastfeeding benefits for babies include the reduction of risk in sudden infant death and infant mortality, reduction in the risk of obesity and diabetes in infants, lower rates of respiratory tract infections, lower rates of gastrointestinal tract infections and more.
“Benefits for mom are that it reduces risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer, decreases risk of postpartum depression, reduces risk of type 2 diabetes, reduces hypertension, hyperlipidemia and heart disease and reduces postpartum blood loss,” Ballard said. “There are also breast-feeding benefits for employers that pay off significantly — some of those things that have been published are more satisfied, loyal employees and cost savings to the business. The savings are seen in the area of retention of experienced employees, reduction in sick time taken by mom and dad and lower healthcare and insurance costs.”
One glaring detail Ballard shared was that women are returning to work earlier than recommended by doctors according to her data and that 54% of women without degrees returned to work within two weeks of giving birth.
Some of the key aspects of implementing the policy is providing support to mothers returning to work who plan to continue providing breast milk to their child or children, designating comfortable and appropriate spaces for pumping and following best practices.
According to the CDC, as Ballard pointed out, Mississippi falls significantly short when it comes to nationwide breastfeeding goals.
Two nationwide goals are to have 42.4% of infants who are exclusively breastfed through six months and 54.1% of infants who are breastfed through the year.
In Mississippi, only 18.1% of infants are exclusively breastfed through six months and 24.3% of infants are breastfed through one year.
“Obviously we fully support these efforts and my thought would be that we certainly want to accommodate the program and accommodate these individuals and find a location in our courthouse and all of our city owned buildings,” Ward 1 Councilman Al Brock said. “So I would recommend we consider that.”
Mayor Errick Simmons echoed Brock’s sentiments and added, “I think this will be great for our mothers.”
He also thanked Ballard and the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights for its efforts and what they’ve done with the breastfeeding policy pilot program.
