Teo Nie Ching (PH-Kulai) said the proposed amendments failed to address the needs of working breastfeeding mothers.

She cited the 2006 National Health and Morbidity Survey, which highlighted that the percentage of mothers who breastfeed their babies for four months was 19.3%, while those who did so for six months was 14.5%, which was less than the global rate of 38%.

The survey report, according to Teo, noted that the reduction happened within two months of the mothers going back to work, where many faced difficulties finding time to lactate or getting a lactation room at their workplace and finding a place to store the milk.

The DAP MP said the country should emulate the best practices in the US, the Netherlands and the Philippines to ensure that workplaces were accommodating to breastfeeding mothers.

“The US amended its employment laws in 2010 to mandate employers to allocate time for breastfeeding mothers to lactate for a year after the birth of their child. The employers there are also required to prepare a lactation room for the mothers,” she said when debating the amendments in the Dewan Rakyat today.

“In the Philippines, not only are employers mandated to prepare lactation rooms, they are also required to give lactation time for mothers outside their break hours. Forty minutes out of eight working hours has to be allocated for lactation. This has been their practice since 2009.

“Meanwhile, the laws in the Netherlands mandate employers to set up lactation rooms for the first nine months and allow 25% of work hours to be spent for such purpose.”

Teo stressed that these policies were needed if the government wanted to protect the rights of working mothers as well as increase the percentage of women in the workforce.