Commissioner Seeks Law For Maternity Leave Extension

The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker, has called for a legislation that would make it mandatory for nursing mothers to take six months maternity leave.

Parker said in an interview last Friday in Port Harcourt at the sideline of a two-day sensitisation for mothers as part of the activities to mark the 2013 edition of World Breast feeding Week. The 2013 theme is, “Breast feeding Support: Close to Mothers’’.

The World Breast feeding Week is commemorated from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7 yearly to encourage breast feeding and improve the health of babies around the world.It is championed by the World Alliance for Breast feeding Action (WABA) which was formed in 1991 to act on the Innocenti Declaration (1990) to protect, promote and support breast feeding.

The Innocenti Declaration was produced and adopted by participants at the WHO/UNICEF policymakers’ meeting ?held at Spedale Degli Innocenti, Florence, Italy, from July 30, to Aug.1 1990.

He said that six months maternity leave would enable nursing mothers to have enough time to adequately breast feed their newly-born babies.

“Feeding babies with synthetic food and formulas exposes children to early infant diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia, prematurity amongst others. Breast-fed children are much healthier and much intelligent in academic works than children who were not breast-fed. So, we are advocating for a legislation that will ensure that nursing mothers have maximum maternity leave to guarantee adequate breast feeding of their newly-born babies,” he said.

Parker said that the legislation would also include a short paternity leave for fathers to enable them to support their nursing wives and called on expectant and nursing mothers to register in the free medical care programme provided by the state government.