The sisterhood of breastfeeding mothers

“Do you have a lactation station?”

 The impeccably-made up front desk officer of a hotel stared at me confusedly when I asked her this question. It appeared to be the first time she had heard of the term. I explained that under the law, a lactation station is a private, clean, sanitary, and well-ventilated room or area in the workplace or public places where nursing mothers can wash up, breastfeed or express their milk comfortably and store this afterward. She said that the hotel didn’t have any.

 A few weeks later, I’m at the Senate. Thinking that a place where laws are drafted would be a place where laws are enforced, I hoped to get a “yes” to the same question. I asked a cleaning woman if there was lactation station in the building. I explained that this was a room where women could express breast milk. She said that there was none and suggested that I use the toilet designated for persons with disability instead.

 The Department of Health and the World Health Organization recommend that babies be exclusively breastfed for at least six months. Studies show that exclusively breastfeeding for at least six months can lower the incidence of malnutrition, illnesses, and deaths among children under the age of five.  Because of this, it was easy for me to decide to exclusively breastfeed my baby. Actually doing so required more time and effort than I imagined.

 Almost 20 years ago, Republic Act No. 7600 or “The Rooming-In and Breast-Feeding Act of 1992” was enacted. The Philippines adopted rooming-in as a national policy to encourage, protect and support the practice of breastfeeding. To strengthen this law, Republic Act No. 10028 or “The Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009” was passed. Section 11 thereof provides that “It is hereby mandated that all health and non-health facilities, establishments or institutions shall establish lactation stations. The lactation stations shall be adequately provided with the necessary equipment and facilities, such as: lavatory for hand-washing, unless there is an easily-accessible lavatory nearby; refrigeration or appropriate cooling facilities for storing expressed breast milk; electrical outlets for breast pumps; a small table; comfortable seats; and other items, the standards of which shall be defined by the Department of Health. The lactation station shall not be located in the toilet.”

 Republic Act No. 10028 was signed into law on 16 March 2010 by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It states that all health and non-health facilities, establishments and institutions shall comply with the provisions of the law within six months after its approval. It has been over a year since its approval.  To date, no implementing rules and regulations have been issued for this law.

 I am thankful that my job allows me to work from home. On days when I have to attend meetings, however, I bring a breast pump with me and hope that I can find a place clean and peaceful enough to express milk. In the case of the hotel, the front desk officer rushed housekeeping to make my room ready even before the official check-in time. Sometimes, I have no choice but to pump in the toilet. I still count myself lucky because several times, cleaning women have offered me a plastic chair and cordoned off an area near the sink which I could use. They also share their breastfeeding stories with me.

“Your baby must be fat,” a curvy woman in a snug leopard-print dress tells me smilingly as I was expressing milk at a hotel powder room. I listen as she tells me that she breastfed her five children, all of whom are now grown-ups. The absence of lactation stations may be inconvenient but it has given me the chance to get encouragement and support to continue breastfeeding from total strangers. I am grateful.