Former Member of Parliament for Jomoro, Samia Nkrumah has called for an extension of maternity leave from the current three months to at least six months.
In a May Day message, the former Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), argued that such an extension would allow women to adequately nurture their babies within the critical stages of early birth.
“The biggest and most important resource for any nation is people and many of the people who carry country are women workers and everyone knows that it is the women who carry the main burden physically and psychologically of having children and raising children at least in the early years and it is important for these women to be healthy and happy so their babies are also happy and healthy.
“It is common knowledge that the first thousand days of our lives are the most important, most crucial so indeed it is kind for a country like us to extend maternity leave, Three months is inadequate and many women if you ask them, they would want to stay at home with their children longer so we must follow the footsteps of so many other progressive societies and extend maternity leave and make sure when women are back there are some child care centres so women can breastfeed for long hours so indeed we must follow the footsteps of other progressive societies and extend maternity leave. The longer you breastfeed the better.”
There have been calls for government to extend maternity leave.
Some petitioners in a bid to achieve this goal petitioned Parliament a few weeks ago for maternity leave to be increased from 3 months to 6 months.
Kojo Bedu-Adu who started the petition said the current 3 months given to mothers as maternity leave is not enough especially in the era where both parents must make ends meet to ensure the home survives.
The petition garnered over two thousand signatories.
–
By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana