Ndzi, E, Hinchcliffe, D and Neilson, D (2025) The Impact of Legal Policies and Workplace Culture on Breastfeeding in the UK Health Sector. International Journal of Law and Society, 8 (1). pp. 25-36. ISSN 2640-1894

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Abstract

The UK remains one of the countries with the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world despite the well-recognised benefits of breastfeeding. The National Health Service (NHS) provides guidance on how breastfeeding mothers should be supported in the workplace. However, the implementation of the guidance is not consistent across the sector, hence impacting on mothers’ ability to initiate or sustain breastfeeding. This study draws on data collected from 983 survey responses targeted at mothers working in the health sector. The study found that health sector employees are not well supported to breastfeed upon return to work. Only 36.3% of the participants (n=983) reported their workplace had a breastfeeding policy. Participants cited breastfeeding as a reason for staying longer on maternity leave because of lack of workplace support. This also affected mothers’ ability to benefit from shared parental leave, as it would require the mother to return to work early. This study highlights the barriers mothers in the health sector face with breastfeeding upon return to work while expected to continue fulfilling their duties, which includes promoting and supporting breastfeeding to other mothers and patients. The findings of this study expose the urgent need for the UK health sector to review its workplace policy to implement the guidance provided by the NHS to support breastfeeding employees returning to work. More broadly, the study exposes the extent of breastfeeding challenges in the UK and the need for a legislative reform to include breastfeeding in the national family friendly rights which will obligate employers to provide resources to support breastfeeding mothers in the workplace.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services; 32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences; 3505 Human Resources and Industrial Relations; 42 Health Sciences; Clinical Research; Nutrition; Breastfeeding, Lactation and Breast Milk; Reproductive health and childbirth; Generic health relevance; 3 Good Health and Well Being
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Divisions:	Biological and Environmental Sciences (from Sep 19)
Publisher:	Science Publishing Group
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	10 Feb 2025 15:32
Last Modified:	10 Feb 2025 15:32
DOI or ID number:	10.11648/j.ijls.20250801.14
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25592

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