Breastfeeding room required

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.