Employers’ demographic characteristics
Table 1- Employers’ basic characteristics, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2017
Employers characteristics
|
No
|
Code
|
Sex
|
Occupation
|
Organization
|
1
|
EN
|
F
|
Human resource coordinator
|
Governmental Health Institution
|
2
|
EN
|
M
|
Health department head
|
Governmental Education Institute
|
3
|
EN
|
M
|
Human resource coordinator
|
Private Insurance Company
|
4
|
EO
|
F
|
Women’s affair officer
|
State Enterprise (Governmental)
|
5
|
EO
|
F
|
Daycare coordinator
|
Private Technology Group
|
6
|
EO
|
F
|
Manpower corporate director
|
Private Technology Group
|
7
|
ES
|
M
|
Health and nutrition department coordinator
|
International NGO
|
8
|
Esh
|
F
|
Child support & inspection director
|
Bureau of Women’s And Youth Affair (Governmental)
|
9
|
Esh
|
F
|
Women’s affair bureau director
|
Bureau of Women’s And Youth Affair (Governmental)
|
10
|
Esh
|
F
|
MCH and nutrition department coordinator
|
Federal Ministry of Health
|
EN- Employers from institution that has neither onsite childcare center nor six-month maternity leave.
EO- Employers from institution that has onsite childcare center.
ES- Employers from institution that gives six-month maternity leave.
Esh- Employers from stakeholder bureau.
Three male and seven female employers who came from range of positions that made them responsible for issues of employed mothers, breastfeeding and supporting conditions in the work place were involved in this study.
Three of the employers were from organizations that offer onsite child care center, one employer came from an organization that offers six-month maternity leave and three employers were from organizations with none of the two supporting conditions, and other three employers were from stakeholder bureaus.
Four themes were generated from the analysis of the data from interviews
- Understanding breastfeeding.
- Current maternity leave.
- Perception of breastfeeding supporting conditions.
- Mother-friendly work environment
Understanding breastfeeding
Duration of breastfeeding
Almost all employers except one expressed that they believe six months exclusive breastfeeding is needed and should also be continued to two years. One employer, however, explained that with the current living situation and employment it is enough if mothers breastfeed up to the age of one.
“If you are asking me what I think, I say it’s enough for an employed mother to breastfeed her baby only in the morning and night time to about a year; given the current living situation.“ En
Breastfeeding benefits
Employers described the benefit of breastfeeding majorly related to health, psychosocial wellbeing, and economic benefit.
“Breastfeeding has health benefits like a baby gets immunity from the first breast milk and breastfeeding doesn’t need out of pocket-expense. Plus it improves psychosocial health by increasing the bond between mother and child.” Es
They also expressed the impact of not breastfeeding on the development of children and the satisfaction of mothers.
“In my opinion, if a mother doesn’t breastfeed she will primarily lose mental satisfaction and she won’t be able to care for her child which will hurt her child’s growth.” Es
Current maternity leave
Acceptance by employees and the effect of maternity leave
Regarding the acceptance of the current national law of maternity leave, which is three months, employers expressed that it is not accepted by employees because it doesn’t consider the actual living situation and it hurts mothers’ readiness for work. Additionally, it is explained that very few are in favor of the law because it contradicts with the recommendation of six months exclusive breastfeeding.
“Readiness to work is lesser among the workers who return from maternity leave. I’m afraid this is because it is not balanced with the workload they have which hurts the mothers.” En
Employers also said mothers’ restlessness, tiredness and being stressed are because of the shortness of the maternity leave given. They also explained that mothers come back because of the lack of options and that this affects the work.
“Even if a mother comes back to work she’ll be restless and weak because she stays awake at night to breastfeed. Honestly speaking, mothers come back because they have no other option.” En
Implementation of maternity leave and coping mechanisms
All participants explained that the three-month leave has two sections which are prenatal leave of one month and postnatal leave of two months duration but that there is a difference in the provision of the leave.
Most of the employers said that it cannot be amended in any way; even if a mother gave birth before taking any of her maternity leave she will only be given the two months postnatal leave. However, two respondents explained otherwise saying that a mother can take the whole three-month maternity leave after birth if she wants to.
“According to the current proclamation, maternity leave is given one month before and two months after birth. The law doesn’t state the whole three months to be given after birth because it’ll cause irregularities on work.” Eo
According to the employers, annual leave is a solution mostly used to extend maternity leave and taking unofficial leave or break with the agreement of boss is also common.
“I try to help mothers with difficulties by arranging unofficial supports like coming in late to work and leaving early.” En
Another way that mothers try to cope with their problem as described by employers is taking leave without payment. They explained that mothers ask for this kind of leave when they have difficult situations and this kind of leave is granted according to the specific case a mother has. Employers also explained that this type of leave is generally not encouraged to prevent it from becoming a trend.
“Few mothers might not return to work after using both maternity and annual leave due to special cases like a child’s health problem. Accordingly, mothers are given ‘leave without payment’ for one month or so. But we don’t encourage this practice because if it becomes a trend it will grow in to a norm.” En
Perception of breastfeeding supporting conditions
View on onsite child care center
Onsite childcare center is discussed as one of the options to solve problems an employed woman faces as a mother. Participants discussed that presence of an onsite childcare center ensures women productivity, happiness at work and stability.
“When onsite childcare center is accessible mothers can do their job properly, become stable and happy.” En
Participants explained the fact that mothers would not need to quit their jobs to raise their child if this center is accessible, which is what happens in most cases.
“The presence of a day care center will ease so many problems and mothers will not stay home or quit their job.” En
There are some concerns presented by employers concerning an onsite childcare center which mainly are the difficulty it poses for an organization regarding space and related costs of hiring a baby sitter and fulfilling necessary facilities for the center. But despite these issues employers emphasized that the benefit outweighs the cost.
“As a facility what is thought as the cost of having an onsite child care center includes the space it takes and fulfilling all the important things to make it safe and comfortable for children. These children need someone to care for them which is additional cost to be covered by the facility.” En
The other thing mentioned is the issue of convenience for women coming from far and the quality and consistency in the long run.
“We should insure that this place for children and mothers is permanent. The most common challenges are lack of space to build this center and making the service continuous with quality. Esh
Participants also explained that increment of female employee number might put extra pressure to the organization but it still has more advantage.
The increment of female employees might bring changes like the need for hiring more baby sitters and expanding space because there will probably be more children. But the benefit of the center is still great.” Eo
One of the challenges mentioned by employers in institution that has onsite childcare center is the difficulty of getting the mothers familiar with a programmed breastfeeding and care for children.
“One problem we faced was getting the mothers to breastfeed in the set out schedule. Mothers come just after finishing their leave and they are used to breastfeeding whenever they want which makes it hard for them to follow a schedule right away.” Eo
View on six-month maternity leave
The other supporting condition discussed is six-month maternity leave. Employers discussed the contribution of six-month maternity leave in a sense that it increases productivity, focus on job and better breastfeeding trend.
“If a woman comes back to work after getting a six-month maternity leave she’ll take care of major problems that she might face beforehand and she’ll be stable at work.” Es
Employers also expressed that it is a great opportunity for mothers to rehabilitate, especially for those on positions where a great deal of labor input is needed.
“I prefer the six-month leave because it helps mothers to recover because mothers in this factory work on machines all day. Imagine, these mothers had been pregnant for nine months and lost a lot of blood plus they breastfeed.” Eo
The things raised as a concern by employers include the need and the difficulty of getting a replacement employee for the six months and the impact it has on the operation of the work.
“I think the issue here is the need for a person that fills in a mother’s position when she is not around. This could mean additional arrangement of hiring replacement personnel.” En
Another concern is related with difficulty of implementation because of lesser acceptance by private sectors and the probability of employers being inclined to hiring men over women.
“Private sectors might not be willing to implement six-month maternity leave and even if it they accept it as an obligation there will be high tendency of getting women out of the business using subtle reasons.” Esh
Mother-friendly work environment
Understanding the meaning
The employers understand the term mother-friendly environment as being an environment that accommodates mother’s needs as a women and a mother by giving time to her child in addition to the her work. And they also said it should include an understanding staff and situations that are fitting to motherhood.
“The first thing is that the environment should give time to children in addition to the work. Secondly, I think there should be a well-rounded waiting place for children who are not old enough to get in to school.” En
Employers also described that the environment should be beneficial to a mother and should fulfill her basic needs where she faces no problems because of pregnancy, being a women or a mother.
“Mother-friendly work environment is facilitating every vital thing for women during pregnancy and breastfeeding, like building a friendly place for mothers to breastfeed at work and making it functional.” Esh
Effect on mothers and breastfeeding
Participants explained that creating a friendly work environment for mothers means in one way or another helping everyone else around her.
“A healthy mother can raise a healthy child and a healthy generation. That’s why we need to push through as this is an issue helpful for all of us.” En
Employers also emphasized on the fact that a friendly environment ensures mental satisfaction of women, makes them effective, stable and decreases absenteeism which in turn helps the organization.
“Creating a comfortable environment for a mother means creating a productive and stable employee. Mothers encounter different problems because of lack of enough care for their children that can be prevented by building a system that supports women and in turn decreases absenteeism.” Eo