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Oct 03, 2017 News
By early next year a final agreement is likely to be completed to fast-track measures to realise an extended period of maternity leave for women. This is intended to cater to exclusive breastfeeding for babies for the first six months of their lives.
Based on the prevailing regulations, women are only afforded a period of three months at home with their babies.
But according to Chief Medical Officer [CMO], Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, the Public Health Ministry is committed to its long-proposed stance to make reality the six-month maternity leave notion.
“The Ministry is still committed to ensuring that there is more time for mothers, a minimum of six months exclusive breastfeeding…so we will stick to that,” said Dr. Persaud.
According to Dr. Persaud, in order to realise this goal the Ministry has been working with the National Insurance Scheme [NIS].
“NIS is the main entity that has to put together all the costing and what it would mean for the employers, both Government and the private sector. What the costing will be, needs to be finalised and then some public consultations will start…We haven’t gotten to that [consultations] as yet but that is part of a five point plan we have,” Dr. Persaud explained.
“I am sure that by the end of this year or early into the New Year we should get some movement on this in terms of consultation and the final agreement,” said the CMO. There are a number of countries that have successfully implemented the augmented maternity leave, he said.
“It is well documented…it has been done in Canada and several Caribbean countries too,” said Dr. Persaud.
Dr. Surendra Persaud, Chairman of NIS, said that while NIS accepts its crucial role in the process, the contribution of other stakeholders cannot be under-rated.
He however noted that the financial aspect will have to be taken into careful consideration. “NIS pays a woman a portion of her salary for the period she is on leave. Now the NIS will continue to pay a portion for the extended period of six months once this is brought into law,” said Dr. Surendra Persaud.
But according to him, among the questions that will have to be answered is, “Whether the woman will be able to live on that limited portion for that extended period, because she will have added expenses.”
The NIS Chairman asserted that while the financial implications on several levels will have to be closely examined, NIS will have to comply with Government.
Minister within the Public Health Ministry, Dr. Karen Cummings, had earlier amplified that there are a great deal of measures that must be put in place before mothers can benefit from six months of maternity leave.
“Even though we have the go-ahead from some stakeholders and sectors, the current three months leave is in adherence with the NIS Act, and we will have to re-adjust that before any change can take place,” Minister Cummings has stressed.
“So we will have to keep working with that before we can extend three months to six months…It is not easy, but it is on the drawing board,” she’d noted.
According to Dr. Persaud, in achieving this goal there is need for social policies that could support the six-month maternity leave notion. He had linked it to primary health care and pointed out that while the general delivery of health care is a mandate of the health sector, primary health care is one that requires full involvement of respective communities.
He also highlighted the need for primary health care services to be offered at a cost that communities are able to bear.
He underscored that “it is not things people cannot achieve or cannot afford to have access to, and it is usually developed in the spirit of self-reliance and self determination.”
The involvement of communities, he said, is crucial to assess what people’s needs are from their perspective.
“It focuses health beyond traditional hospital care. It is more towards health equity and production of healthy social policies,” Dr. Persaud asserted.
“We are not only talking about Government policies and so on, but social policies – the way we behave among each other, the support men give to their wives or other pregnant women in society.”
”We are still tied with this three months NIS requirement. If you look carefully at the law it is really one month of confinement, and then two months after the mother has got her baby. So, how is this woman breastfeeding this baby for six months?” questioned Dr. Persaud.
The CMO in his earlier deliberation emphasised that breastfeeding is seen as one of the tactics that can serve to combat obesity in babies. Moreover, he stressed the need for the implementation of social policies to address this health challenge.
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