Exclusive breastfeeding is directly tied to lower infant mortality and reduced paediatric hospitalisations. [Courtesy]
For close to one year, the staff’s lactation room at Nakuru Level Five Hospital has become almost like a kitchen to Mercy Wanjiru.
To her, it is a constant room that she visits to express her breast milk and even store it in a special fridge for later pickup when she is leaving for home.
“Life has become a lot easier now. Since I resumed work from maternity leave, I have been constantly expressing the milk here to keep the baby going even when I am working,” Wairimu says.
Unlike many other working women whose return to work after three months of maternity leave marks a painful, silent surrender as they are forced to pump milk in unsanitary places like toilets or even parked cars, Wanjiru had the privilege of exclusively breastfeeding her child for six months.
