Many educated women today will frown on the idea that “A woman’s place or office is the kitchen”.  In fact, there have been vigorous campaigns aimed at erasing that notion to replace it with one that says: “what a man can do a woman can do even better”.

 The world’s attention is drawn to equality for the male and female child, and in fact many support the need for affirmative action in favour of women’s development since gender activists believe women are mostly disadvantaged in many areas.

     

 However, biologically, men and women are different; women menstruate, give birth, breastfeed and are naturally skewed toward taking care of children emotionally.

      

 These biological roles that women have tend to limit them in one way or another -- hence the need for affirmative action.

    

Affirmative action can also be referred to as positive discrimination, and means a policy or a law that favours a section of the population.

     

 In Ghana, one thing that limits women in terms of progress in their career is childbirth. When a woman gives birth she needs rest; and she needs to breastfeed the child exclusively for six months.

    

 Perhaps that is why the Ghana Medical Association is advocating a six-month maternity leave for women.

   

Members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in November last year called for the review of labour laws to grant mothers six months of maternity leave, and the mandatory establishment of nurseries in all public and private institutions.

    

They said exclusive breastfeeding among all working nursing mothers must be encouraged, and health facilities in the country be made to ensure they are baby-friendly.

     

The above concerns were in a communiqué the GMA issued and was signed by the GMA President Dr. Kwabena Opoku-Adusei and General Secretary Dr. Frank Serebour at the end of the 54th annual general conference of the Association held in Cape Coast.

   

 The communiqué noted that given the proven benefits of six months of exclusive breastfeeding to new-borns, the GMA calls for an increase in the current three-month maternity leave to six months -- stressing that it is especially relevant as some mothers are asked to start their maternity leave six weeks prior to delivery.

     

In Ghana, most institutions now give a three-month maternity leave -- after which mothers apply for their annual leave, and that pushes them to about four-and-a–half months.

     

Many organisations may argue that they cannot be paying someone for a whole six months when the person is actually “not working”: in fact, some private institutions tend to sack female workers once they start giving birth.

     

 The argument is, at that point in the female’s life, they are not productive commercially -- so which money should be used to pay them?

       

However, the big question that we have to ask ourselves as a country is whether we are projecting into the future at all. “They young shall grow,” was an answer a friend gave me when discussing this issue.

   

 Do we see the new-borns as a human resource for the country? Would it not be better if mothers had the time to nurture their young ones and invest in their brain-development, which would eventually ensure good human resource development for the country?

       

 A politician once remarked that a good source of investment for any country is to invest in its human resource development, because at the end of the day -- no matter the level of the economy, no matter the infrastructure -- it is the human beings that make a nation.

     

The GMA also advocates a mandatory establishment of nurseries in organisations to allow nursing mothers to breastfeed infants during their breastfeeding breaks. It sounds like a dream: breastfeeding breaks?

     

 One may argue that there are day-care centres springing up all over the place and these days they even admit three-months olds; that is true, but there are also horrifying stories associated with that development.

    

 A couple shared their experience of how before they sent little Akua to school she was active, cried a lot, fed well and was a really happy baby -- and how little Akua changed to be dull, not feed well and was sick almost all the time.

     

 According to the couple, they found out that Akua was given a sedative at the day-care centre every day to keep her calm: horrifying indeed!

      

Some even share stories of house-helps giving their children alcohol to put them to sleep so that they “can be free”.  Oh, where is our conscience as a nation? What have these little ones done to deserve such maltreatment? Are we thinking of human resource development? Indeed, the young shall grow. 

    

 The Ghana Medical Association said -- given the current under-five mortality rate of 80 deaths per 1,000 live births and the country’s target of 40 deaths per 1000 lives by 2015 -- it is imperative for all stakeholders, policymakers, managers, development partners and health professionals to rededicate themselves to improve care for children under five; adding that the improved care must span the entire continuum of care, from conception through delivery and post-period to the fifth year of life.

     

 Where are the women activists? Where are the female parliamentarians? Is Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, watching? What about our dear First Lady, Mrs. Lordina Mahama? Can’t we have laws that ensurethat women have at least six months maternity leave and also see to the establishment of nurseries in all workplaces?

    

 Are women their own enemies? Because sometimes it is the female bosses who say “I went through the same bitter experience and so my fellow-female must also do same”.

     

Yesi Jones, a Ghanaian living in Canada said: “In Canada, no one will admit a six-month old baby to school”. She said mothers are given a whole year of maternity leave, with pay.

    

 She further explains that in Canada the safety, health and security of a baby is key, and no one would dare want to give a female employee only six months of maternity leave; it would be criminal, she stressed.

    

 In Ghana 40% of under-five deaths and 60% of infant deaths happen in the neonatal age group, and the GMA is saying that it is important for all stakeholders to pay more attention to new-borns that are dying primarily from neonatal sepsis, prematurity and asphyxia.

  

The Medical Association therefore advised doctors to take a more proactive leadership role, whether as clinicians or as public health physicians, to improve under-five care and to generate innovative and cost-effective change ideas.

       

 This writer believes giving our babies a good start in life goes a long way to affect their personalities in adulthood.  Perhaps we have to conclude that granting reasonable maternity leave to mothers and human resource development are two sides of the same coin.

source: B&FT