Bfing, expressing and the workplace-daily mail at it again!

[SeaShellsFiringUpTheQuattro]

Women bringing small businesses to their knees again....

Sounds like a good idea to me :)

I appreciate you cant take the piss for hours on end, but surely it's better to facilitate a skilled employee's return to work than pay for maternity cover/lose that skilled person completely.

They have so much to learn from Scandinavia!!

If DH brings the baby in, I feed her in the office. Otherwise I express in the 'lactation' room, which also has a hospital grade pump in it.

Without it, I am not sure I would have carried on for so long. Went back when DD was 4 months, she's now nearly 9.

I don't treat it as break, it is a chore if I'm honest.

I also express at work. I Pee-arranged facilites to do so with my very embarrassed 50+ yr old male boss. Have lockable office, space in fridge and scheduled 20 min 'private' appointments 3 times a day in shared calendar. Staff none the wiser. shame students don't respect a closed office door - often have to shout come back later :-)

When people talk about learning from Scandinavia does anyone actually appreciate the extremely high cost of daily life in these countries???

Yes PommedeTerre, cos it's very cheap to live here, isn't it ?

I have several Scandi friends, all who say there is little difference in the cost of living between Scandinavia and the UK. Certainly whenever I've been over to Finland prices for everyday commodities are similar and housing is considerably cheaper. Public transport is similarly priced etc etc. So I completely disagree with your assertion that life in Scandinavia is very dear.

Just read the DM comments. Agghhhh. Have to stop doing it. My blood pressure cant take it. How can there be so many stupid people in the world? Evolution is clearly not fecking working.

Sorry I posted and then disappeared- RL got in the way!

Pommedeterre-re scandi expense yes it is more expensive ie food, beer, but then factor in a cap on nursery fees at £200 ish a month, unrivaled maternity pay and leave, a working day of 8-4 and the benefit to family life is amazing. They are also very pro breastfeeding.

I agree with other posters that early support to get bfing established is so important, and a change of attitude socially. By the time you are back to work bf will have little impact-unless mum has to race back to work.

The comments section is where he scariest opinions are-just shows how little some people's opinion have evolved :(

Here is the web page with a link to the government's Breastfeeding and Work leaflet The relevant words on the last page of the leaflet with my bolding are...

"The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends that it is good practice for employers to provide a private, healthy and safe environment for breastfeeding mothers to express and store milk. It is not suitable to use toilets for this purpose."

When I spoke to a law firm about this they said that due to the word recommends and the phrase good practice showed this is a suggestion only and companies are not legally obligated to provide a space if they didn't want too. :(

I seem to remember they HAD to do a health and safety risk assessment on returning to work breastfeeding mothers.

My point is that everyday life will be more expensive because of mat rights etc - it all has to be paid for from somewhere doesn't it?
Fibilou - Happy to admit if I am outdated - denmark 10 years ago took my breath away with how expensive everything was.
Anyway - as above my point is that these things do have to come at a price. Certainly at the moment there is no money in the coffers to do this.

This is being discussed on womens hour now!

Pomme you could argue that ff costs the nhs and therefore encouraging bf is an investment.

Personally I don't like this argument as it acts like money is all and the health of a child/adult is a aecondary concern to this.

Argh at the likes of Anne widdecombe who seem to think that equality for women means pretending we are men.

Agree that women won't have equality in the work place till men are as likely to take as much parental leave as women (as is the case in sweden where people are encouraged to do this by being awarded a cash bonus if they split the leave 50-50)

I don't really get the arguments abouut leave etc being more expensive.

Surely people would rather have more leave and slightly lower wages...esp with less nursary bills to fund.

It's like we exist to serve "The Economy"