“The biggest problem that mothers find when returning to work in person, is the lack of respectful and hygienic spaces to express milk and be able to sustain their breastfeeding”, explained Sol Arguelles, childcare provider and parenting consultant and added that “A large part of these women have to go to the bathroom to be able to carry out their extractions and they also do not have a refrigerated place to store it, so it is essential that companies have lactation”.
According to the UNICEF study entitled “Private Sector and Rights of Children and Adolescents in Argentina” of 2019 where 710 companies were surveyed, 90% small and medium-sized shows that 9 out of 10 companies in Argentina do not have lactation for their employees.
“Returning to their paid jobs is one of the main reasons mothers come to premature and unwanted weaning. They find themselves with many impediments at the time of retiring to express milk, they are judged by the environment, there is no respect for their rights, there are no breastfeeding mothers and sustaining breastfeeding becomes an impossible mission “Argüelles mused.
The lack of lactation centers, care spaces, access to childcare spaces, little support for mothers are some of the factors that deepen gender inequalities in the workplace.
In Argentina, the Labor Contract Law 20,744 establishes that women have 90 days of maternity leave (45 before birth and 45 postpartum). This means that they must go back to work when the baby is just 45 days old.
The law also states that “The establishments where the minimum number of workers determined by the regulations provide services, the employer must enable maternity wards and nurseries for children up to the age and under the conditions that are established in due course”. In the case of CABA, places where there are 20 or more women of childbearing age should have a lactation.
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