Lactation and Work: Managers’ Support for Breastfeeding Enhance Vertical Trust and Organizational Identification

BACKGROUND: In working women, there are barriers when combining the mother and work role, especially during the breastfeeding period. Recent literature shows that improving organizational support increases trust performance via different domains (i.e., organizational identification) and that improving support for breastfeeding increases lactation rates and duration. Breastfeeding support in the workplace is one component that contributes to a mother’s ability to continue to breastfeed once she has returned to work. This is a Human Resource Management practice that facilitates a work–life balance. Working mothers have, at least, two roles: mother and worker and, when mothers return to work, they have to manage both identities. Is lactation a way to keep both identities connected? Is organizational support of breastfeeding a way to improve organizational identification? The aim of this paper is to analyze a hierarchical model to explain how managers and co-worker support to breastfeeding predict trust and organizational identity in a sample of Spanish working mothers (N = 1,028). MATERIALS AND METHODS: To analyze the indirect effect, it was tested using a mediation model with PROCESS in two random samples and carried out structural equation modeling to confirm structural relationship in the proposed model. RESULTS: Outcomes reveal effects of managers’ support to lactation and vertical trust in organizational identity but not in co-worker path. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest the manager’s role in maintaining trust from working women and create and maintenance organizational identification.