Breastfeeding mum pumped milk in ‘filthy toilet cubicle’ before Hong Kong company converted an interview room

Emily Shiu Tsz-ling used to hide in filthy toilet cubicles at work to pump breast milk for her newborn. “I couldn’t touch anything while I was pumping milk, the hygiene was so bad,” Shiu, a senior human resources officer, said. “I would feel stressed when there were people lining up outside [to use the cubicle] and produced less milk as a result.”

Thanks to the introduction of a breastfeeding policy, her company, Prince Jewellery and Watch, converted an interview room into a nursing room and Shiu can now comfortably prepare meals for her second child, a four-month-old girl.

But she remains in the minority and women’s concern groups have called for incentives for companies to run family friendly policies.

A Department of Health survey, conducted in June and July last year, found only 18.6 per cent of 2,000 interviewees, said breastfeeding-friendly policies were offered at their work, yet 89 per cent were supportive of them.

A separate study, released by Unicef Hong Kong, found that only around 27 per cent of mothers were still exclusively breastfeeding their children at four months old, down from 86 per cent who had initiated breastfeeding on the day of discharge from hospital.

A breastfeeding campaign, co-organised by Unicef Hong Kong and the Food and Health Bureau was launched in August, with some 65 local companies signing up, including Shiu’s.

“With space and time for me to pump milk, I don’t need to worry so much at work and I can still give the best to my children,” she said. “It’s alright as long as there is a locked door or curtain, an electrical outlet for the milk pump, a chair and a table for us to place things,” she said, adding that a separate fridge for storing milk was a bonus.