Breastfeeding room required

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso has asked all government and private offices in Jakarta to provide a mother's room for female employees to breast-feed their babies.

"They need to provide this room as a way to respect a mother's privacy in breast-feeding her baby. This is also in support of 2001 World Breast-feeding Day," Sutiyoso said at a one-day seminar here on the planned event on Tuesday.

He said that mothers' milk was important nutrition for babies as it helped them resist infections and other diseases. "If all mothers breast-fed their babies, then we could expect a better generation in the future," he added.

It is not known whether there were any offices providing the facility.

He told Antara that breast-feeding also cuts down on the public health subsidy. It also decreases the need to rely on imported baby formula, which would lessen the demand for dollars and reduce waste from packaging, he added.

Sutiyoso said that in the United States a family could save up to US$800 when a mother breast-fed her baby for six months.