Breastfeeding-friendly policies and programs in three public Universities in Ghana

BACKGROUND: The United Nations through its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 and 5 has championed Women empowerment for exclusive breastfeeding through various action plans and expected the concept to be decentralized through locally mandatory implementation of various institutional policies and programs in member Countries. Using Kabeer’s empowerment concept, the authors in this paper assessed availability and implementation of breastfeeding policies and programs in three public universities in Ghana. METHODS: The study design was an exploratory-descriptive-case study involving university employees and student mothers from three public universities in Ghana. The universities were selected via simple random approach whilst selection of participants was purposive. Data were collected between April and July 2018 using an unstructured interview guide developed by the authors, audio recordings, field notes and desktop review of documents. Manual thematic analysis of data was done to present results descriptively. The University of Cape-Coast Ethics Review Board approved the study. RESULTS: Thirty-six respondents participated in the study. Three main themes (Breastfeeding policy and programs, Institutional support, and views on Breastfeeding/Childcare support) emerged. Despite being gender/child friendly, none of the universities in this study has a formal breastfeeding/childcare policy/program and there are no immediate policy plans for on-campus facilities to enhance breastfeeding. Financial cost emerged as a major challenge hindering the universities from implementing a policy/program in this regard. On the part of student mothers, lack of legal protection, lack of breastfeeding-friendly university policies, inadequate availability of breastfeeding facilities, and insufficient awareness of the importance of breastfeeding among nursing mothers has been a major setback for breastfeeding on campus, hence nursing mothers continue to make personal but challenging arrangements for breastfeeding on university campuses. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings reflect negative implications for childcare as it affects optimal child nutrition, hence impacting on achieving the SDGs 3 and 5 in Ghana. The authors recommend introducing formal breastfeeding-friendly policies/programs as one of the criteria for accreditation of universities in Ghana to enhance optimal childcare and sound maternal mind for studies and/or work once there is an assurance of child safety and proximity to breastfeed on demand.