BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE

AUGUST 1, 2023

Breastfeeding is totally natural and highly beneficial for mums and bubs, but it can still feel like a big step to go back to work with a baby on the breast, or on expressed milk.  

There’s a learning curve when you’re popping in for feeds, dropping off your precious bottles, or worrying about things like leakages, privacy and how your little one will adjust to seeing less of you.  

However, we are pleased to report that employees are entitled to breastfeed without discrimination, and some employers aren’t just ‘ok’ with breastfeeding, they’re actually passionate advocates for it. 

One of these excellent employers is Affinity Education Group. 

Affinity is a leading provider of early education and care, with more than 220 centres around Australia, 4,000+ female employees and 13,000+ enrolled families.  

They’ve always been breastfeeding friendly, because they genuinely care about their staff and families, but two years ago, Affinity became the very first group in the sector to earn a Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace (BFW) accreditation from the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA).  

This accreditation isn’t just something you fill in a couple of forms to get.  

Instead, it takes real commitment and a willingness to make changes where needed, both on paper and in practice.  

Affinity’s Chief People Officer, Linda Carroll, says, “To achieve accreditation with the ABA, we took a bespoke approach to review the facilities and practices in each centre, in collaboration with their centre management teams. Adjustments were then made to the environments and spaces set up at each centre, such as upgrading armchairs or providing privacy screens.”  

She explains that, “Our national policies were also reviewed, updated to pass endorsement by the ABA, and provided so that all centres operated by Affinity, and each centre we add to our community, have a consistent and supportive commitment to enabling breastfeeding, bottle feeding and pumping for our educators and parents.”  

“Of course, there is a lot more to enabling breastfeeding than the resources and policies,’ Linda acknowledges. “The most critical factor for us as an employer is ensuring our people feel genuinely supported when breastfeeding at work.” 

Affinity has now earnt BFW accreditation for the second year running, and the flow on effect has been amazing for everyone involved.  

Affinity is pleased (and proud) to support breastfeeding in every way it can, and Linda says, “The journey to achieve and then maintain national accreditation by the ABA has been extremely positive for our employees, Centre Leadership teams and for our enrolled families.” 

Offerings like flexible timing for lactation breaks and access to private facilities support mums to continue breastfeeding for as long as they want to; and Amanda Brown and Rikki Ekman are two members of the Affinity family who’ve been supported to ease back into work as breastfeeding mums.  

Amanda is Centre Manager at Papilio Early Learning Baulkham Hills, and returned to full time work in April 2023 with her baby boy, Michael. 

She says, “With Affinity’s support it’s been seamless. While on maternity leave, I put a plan in place with my Area Manager which enabled me to take the time to pump and store milk before my son started attending care here.”  

“Now that he has started attending care full time in our centre, at 10 months of age, I’m able to feed him in the comfy area and put him to sleep. He’s then taken care of wonderfully by our nursery room educators.” 

Amanda is grateful for the super supportive women in her team, and says this support extends to all breastfeeding mums at Papilio Early Learning Baulkham Hills.  

She says, “We also have a parent who alternates between providing stored breastmilk or breastfeeding, and another educator returning to work part time who is pumping milk in her dedicated breaks to ensure she can continue her breastfeeding journey.”  

Rikki Ekman is another part timer who can attest to Affinity’s breastfeeding friendliness. 

Rikki is working part time as an Assistant Centre Manager at Aussie Kindies Early Learning Stawell, and is happily continuing to breastfeed her five-month-old son, Tex.  

Like Amanda, Rikki discussed her breastfeeding wishes with her Manager well before she returned to work, and says, “It made the return so much easier.”  

She explains that, “Tex will take a bottle, but when I was on maternity leave, I explained to my Manager that I preferred to breastfeed, and we spoke about how it might look if Tex needed a feed while I was not working in the same room.”  

“As part of the requirements of being a licensed early education provider, we need to maintain ratios at all times for the amount of qualified people working in each room with children, so when Tex needs a feed it requires my Manager or someone else to swap with me so I can go into the room and feed him, and they do it every time with a smile, which I appreciate so much.”  

All in all, Affinity is a leading example of how an employer can truly support its breastfeeding staff and customers.  

Affinity is proud to acknowledge World Breastfeeding Week, which runs from 1 to 7 August annually, and they remain as committed as ever to their breastfeeding friendly approach. 

Affinity aspires to keep their BFW accreditation for years to come, and fortunately, they aren’t the only BFW accredited employer in Australia.  

Big names like IKEA, Australia Zoo and Mercedes join the full list of BFW accredited organisations, and even if your employer isn’t accredited in this way, it’s still good to know that you’re entitled to breastfeed without discrimination, and it is possible to continue breastfeeding when your little one goes to childcare.  

This KindiCare article contains some great tips from the Australian Breastfeeding Association, and if you’re looking for more helpful advice and on-call assistance, check out their website.  

You can also hear more from Amanda Brown in this video.  

Photo: Ashleigh Ligt, educator from Kids Academy Glenmore Park