By Michael Gwarisa
Following the relocation of Zimbabwe’s Parliament to the new Mt Hampden parliament building, the Zimbabwe Civil Society Organisations Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance (ZCSOSUNA) is working to re-establish a breastfeeding room for female parliamentarians and staff.
This initiative aims to promote and support breastfeeding in line with global health recommendations and recent national legislation.
In 2021, ZCSOSUNA, with support from Parliament and Save the Children UK, launched a breastfeeding room at the old Parliament building in Harare’s Central Business District. The room provided a safe and private space for breastfeeding mothers, especially female legislators from the 9th Parliament, to express or feed their babies during parliamentary sessions.
However, the facility ceased operations following the Parliament’s move to Mt Hampden and the dissolvement of the 9th parliament after the 2023 harmonised election. Now, ZCSOSUNA is seeking to replicate and improve the initiative at the new premises.
As the Zimbabwe Civil Society Organisations Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance (ZCSOSUNA), we want the Parliament of Zimbabwe to set an example in promoting, protecting, and supporting breastfeeding by creating a parent-friendly work environment,” said Kudakwashe Zombe, ZCSOSUNA National Coordinator, in an interview with HealthTimes.
He added that the organisation intends to engage Parliament to support the re-establishment of a well-equipped breastfeeding room at the new site. The initiative complements Statutory Instrument 192 of 2024 on Public Health, which regulates the marketing of breast milk substitutes and promotes optimal infant and young child feeding practices.
“This facility will enable women to express and store breast milk in a clean, secure, and refrigerated environment. It’s a crucial step in reducing reliance on formula feeding, especially during the first six months when exclusive breastfeeding is recommended,” added Zombe.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, emphasizing that the first 1,000 days are critical for a child’s development. However, Zimbabwe’s current maternity leave policy offers only 90 days, making it difficult for working mothers to meet this recommendation. This reality underscores the need for workplace interventions like lactation rooms.
ZCSOSUNA will soon engage with key stakeholders, including the Parliamentary Portfolio Committees on Health and Labour, and received approval from the Clerk of Parliament to proceed with the initiative.
He also highlighted the challenges faced by breastfeeding mothers in unsupportive work environments, where some resort to discarding milk in toilets due to lack of facilities to express or store it. A breastfeeding room would provide relief for engorged breasts, reduce discomfort, and support continued breastfeeding for working mothers.
At the time of the initial launch in 2021, Mr. Dexter Chagwena, a nutritionist in the Ministry of Health and Child Care then, warned about the dangers of aggressive marketing of breast milk substitutes.
“When you look at the science behind this code, even the practice, you find that in countries where the code is weak, there is a lot of unnecessary use of infant formula,” said Chagwena. “In most cases where aggressive marketing is high, breastfeeding rates tend to go down, and this affects child health outcomes including malnutrition.”
Nutrition academic Dr. Tonderayi Matsungo also voiced concerns, stating, “If mothers are practicing exclusive breastfeeding for six months, it is sufficient to provide all the necessary nutrients a child needs to develop without complications. The promotion of breast milk substitutes undermines this, and in most of our settings, using unsafe water to prepare these alternatives can cause conditions such as diarrhoea and other health complications.”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), breastfeeding has many health benefits for both the mother and infant. Breast milk contains all the nutrients an infant needs in the first six months of life. Breastfeeding protects against diarrhoea and common childhood illnesses such as pneumonia, and may also have longer-term health benefits for the mother and child, such as reducing the risk of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence.
