Paternity Leave: A Potential Policy for Improving Child Health

DOI

10.2991/ahsr.k.200215.032How to use a DOI?

Keywords

policy, paternity leave, child health, exclusive breastfeeding

Abstract

The benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for infants and mothers are well-understood. Exclusive breastfeeding can prevent babies from mortality due to infection such as pneumonia and diarrhea, of which one of the leading factors of infant mortality. The rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the world, unfortunately, has been low, and this feature also evident in Indonesia. Several studies show that a father’s involvement has a significant impact on successful exclusive breastfeeding. However, the variable of fathers either in breastfeeding studies or maternal and child health programmes, has been neglected. This article aims to explore the importance of paternity leave in supporting exclusive breastfeeding success, which potentially influences child health. Qualitative research with in-depth interviews was undertaken to explore the significance of paternity leave after the babies born. The study shows that support from husband after babies born is very crucial not only for preventing the mother from baby blues syndrome but also ensuring the babies are exclusively breastfed. Despite the fact, there are just a few countries in the world that implement paternity leave. Indonesia is one of the countries that does not implement a paternity leave policy. The current policy only regulates two-day leaves for men workers to accompany their wives during the delivery process. The Government of Indonesia, therefore, needs to consider father-specific policies to significantly increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding and ultimately improve child and community health.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Angga Sisca Rahadian
AU  - Puguh Prasetyoputro
AU  - Marya Yenita Sitohang
AU  - Tria Anggita Hafsari
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/02/22
TI  - Paternity Leave: A Potential Policy for Improving Child Health
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Health Research (ISHR 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 165
EP  - 173
SN  - 2468-5739
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/ahsr.k.200215.032
DO  - 10.2991/ahsr.k.200215.032
ID  - Rahadian2020
ER  -