A breastfeeding booth located within Two Rivers Mall. NMG PHOTO
What you need to know:
Most mothers are ready and willing to breastfeed anywhere, however sometimes many really need the peace and quiet of a breastfeeding room, especially when in crowded spaces such as shopping malls.
Many facilities now provide space as a result of the Health Act 2017 that made it mandatory for employers to provide feeding stations for nursing mothers in the workplace.
So far only 35 companies in the private sector have active stations while no public offices have done so.
In a hurried world, that sometimes scorns at mothers who breastfeed in public, it is hard to find a calm, private area to do just that.
Most mothers are ready and willing to breastfeed anywhere, however sometimes many really need the peace and quiet of a breastfeeding room, especially when in crowded spaces such as shopping malls.
Many facilities now provide space as a result of the Health Act 2017 that made it mandatory for employers to provide feeding stations for nursing mothers in the workplace.
So far only 35 companies in the private sector have active stations while no public offices have done so.
What is interesting, however, is that malls such as Two Rivers and Sarit Centre in Nairobi have set up lactation stations to offer ease to shoppers.
Titus Musau, the head of operation at Two Rivers says that they came up baby changing rooms to give women space in the always busy mall.
“Considering that Two Rivers is a family mall, we offer clean and serviceable facilities to support lactating mothers as well as organised baby changing facilities. We believe that it’s the right of a mother to access a baby changing area as well as baby feeding room in any public place,” he said.
Sparks controversy
But some women have not taken too kindly to it, with one asking why she had to confine herself in a small room to perform a very natural act.
Another mother on Facebook says that the station was shaming women who breastfeed in public.
Ruth Mwende, a mother who works at Two Rivers says that the lactation stations are not just for mothers with babies, some women need the space to pump milk for the babies who are home.
“Expressing milk can be a stressful task, and the lack of available, comfortable locations to hook up that machine make it even more challenging,” she said.
She says that the move by malls to offer women such stations in the workplace would see marked improvement in the number of women who exclusively breastfeed their children.
“The key reason that women do not breastfeed or stop breastfeeding early is the need to return to work and since most workplaces offer mother only three months’ maternity leave it becomes difficult for mothers to sustain exclusive breastfeeding,” she says.
More than conveniences, public pumping stations support the health of babies, mothers and the whole family, experts say.
“A mother who is pumping needs a private space because there is so much more exposure while she is setting up. She needs a sink to be able to wash her hands and pump parts, and an outlet,” says Dinah Kwamboka, a nurse at the Kenyatta Hospital.
A typical station has a comfortable seating table, an outlet to connect an electric breast pump, a sink for cleaning nursing equipment and a lockable door.
The station at the Sarit Centre has a sofa and a changing room which is open from nine to five while the Two Rivers Mall pod on the first floor can accommodate two breastfeeding mothers and has electricity sockets.
