Why Support Breastfeeding at Work?
IDB Gender and Diversity blog, August 2022
IDB Gender and Diversity Blog · August 2022
Only 37% of babies in Latin America and the Caribbean are exclusively breastfed at six months, below the global average of 44%. The workplace policies that could extend it, paid breastfeeding breaks and lactation rooms, exist on paper in most countries but are inconsistently enforced and rarely reach informal workers.
What the post covers
Returning to work is one of the main reasons mothers report stopping breastfeeding early. Two workplace policies are meant to help: paid daily breaks to breastfeed or express milk, and lactation rooms. Based on a UNICEF review of 24 countries in the region, 19 offer breaks of at least 60 minutes a day, but 4 have no legislation at all. Lactation rooms are mandated by law in 18 of the 24 countries, but in 14 of those, only employers above a minimum size are required to provide them, excluding a large share of working women from the right entirely.
Workplace breastfeeding policies across 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries reviewed by UNICEF (2020). Source: IDB blog, based on UNICEF data.
Why it matters
Two gaps limit how much these policies actually help. First, monitoring is weak: there is little systematic data on whether existing mandates are enforced, so neither workers nor employers reliably know their rights and obligations. Second, most of the region’s workforce is informal, and informal jobs sit outside these mandates by definition. In Latin America and the Caribbean, only 38.2% of employed women worked formally in 2019, so a right written into labor law does not reach most working mothers. Closing that gap requires public funding, not just regulation: providing lactation rooms is costly for employers, and government support is what can extend the benefit to workers a strictly employer-funded mandate would leave out.
Full summary
The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, continued alongside other foods for up to two years or more. Latin America and the Caribbean fall short of that standard: only 37% of babies are exclusively breastfed at six months, against 44% globally. One of the most common reasons mothers report stopping breastfeeding early is the need to return to work, which makes workplace policy a central lever for closing that gap. Two policies matter most: paid daily breaks to breastfeed or express milk, and dedicated lactation rooms. Based on a UNICEF review of the regulatory framework in 24 countries in the region, most already legislate some form of both: 19 of 24 countries offer breastfeeding breaks of at least 60 minutes a day, though 4 have no legislation at all, and few countries let these breaks extend past a baby’s sixth month. Lactation rooms are mandated by law in 18 of 24 countries, but in 14 of those, only employers above a minimum size threshold are required to provide them, which excludes a substantial share of working women from the right in practice. Two structural challenges limit how far these policies reach. First, monitoring and evaluation of existing programs is very limited across the region, leaving both workers and employers with little clear information about their rights and obligations, and leaving policymakers with little evidence about which programs actually work. Second, most of the region’s labor force works informally, and informal employment sits outside the reach of any workplace mandate by definition; in Latin America and the Caribbean, only 38.2% of employed women worked formally as of 2019. Because lactation rooms are costly for employers to provide, and because so much of the workforce is informal, government action is central to extending these benefits equitably: strengthening regulatory frameworks toward international standards such as ILO Convention 183 on maternity protection, building the monitoring and evaluation that is currently missing, and establishing public-private partnerships, backed by public financing, so that breastfeeding support reaches workers a purely employer-funded mandate would leave out. Recognizing the challenges motherhood poses for working women, and the benefits of breastfeeding, should be part of any labor policy with a gender lens: supporting breastfeeding at work is not only a matter of workplace equality, it is an investment in the next generation’s development.