職場哺乳親善措施對女性員工母乳哺育行爲之影響

Objectives: The objective of this research was to explore the effects of a breastfeeding-friendly policy (i.e., pumping room facilities and the rules of breastfeeding breaks)in the workplace on the behavior of female employees and to describe their perception of this policy. Methods: The survey was conducted in a large semiconductor company with a pumping room. Our subjects were employees who gave birth between January 1999 and April 2000. A total of 998 valid questionnaires were collected, giving a survey return rate of 75.3%. Results: The research found that, despite the provision of a pumping room and milk expression time, few employed mothers (13.2% of the valid sample) continued to breastfeed after returning to work. The key factors affecting the decision of female employees to continue breastfeeding after returning to the workplace were their perception of the company's breastfeeding policy and the nature of their work. Office workers rather than fab workers favored continuing to breastfeed. Female employees who were aware of their company's breastfeeding-friendly policy were more likely to continue to breastfeed. A half of the survey subjects were satisfied or had no comment on the pumping room facilities provided by the company, and a greater percentage of the survey subjects held the opinion that "the company needed to buy equipment related to milk expression." Regarding the period set aside for milk expression, 50% of the survey subjects opined that they "did not know about the policy." Conclusions: Pumping room facilities and time periods set aside for milk expression increase the likelihood that female employees continue to breastfeed after returning to the workplace. Nonetheless, these two key factors still need to be improved upon, such as enhancing pumping room facilities to better match users' requirements and better promotion of the period set aside for milk expression.