Mothering mothers

An official of the United Nations visited the Philippines last March and told a committee hearing of the House of Representatives that the ideal maternity leave for working women should be 180 days or six full months.

Aside from allowing mothers to fully recover from childbirth, the UN official said the six months would allow mothers and their babies to form stronger bonds while facilitating breastfeeding.

While mother’s milk can be expressed, stored in the refrigerator and fed to babies through bottles, the UN official said nothing beats milk sucked by babies from their mothers’ breasts in terms of freshness and retained nutritional value.

Effective September 1, pregnant employees of business process outsourcing (BPO) behemoth Accenture can enjoy a paid maternity leave of 120 calendar days or four full months, 60 days more than what’s mandated by the Labor Code.

Accenture’s precedent-setting move should force other BPOs to offer the same benefit to their employee as the competition for the pool of call center agents in the country is very stiff.

Likewise, it should fast-track the passage into law of several bills pending in both the House and Senate to increase the 60-day paid leave mandated by the Labor Code. Most of the bills proposed 120 days while one by Rep. Manny Pacquiao called for the UN-approved 180-day leave.

Other companies have also been generous in their maternity packages for their employees. Some pay the basic salaries of their employees on maternity leave on top of what’s paid them by the Social Security System under the 60-day  mandatory maternity leave.

However, the best thing that could happen for working women giving birth is for the state to mandate a 180-day or at the very least a 120-day paid maternity leave backed by state funding.  

That would be akin to the state mothering our hardworking mothers. –End-

                                               

Image by: Smartparenting