Beyond the rights approach, the promoters of this proposal maintain that it also seeks to integrate an economic dimension, since policies to reconcile work and care can reduce staff turnover, improve productivity and favor the retention of talent, especially in sectors where the exit of women from the labor market after motherhood continues to be high.
From what they pointed out, if it advances in Congress, the initiative would place Mexico in line with recommendations from international organizations such as the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and would open a new front in the legislative discussion on co-responsibility for care and the labor market.
In this regard, Representative Patricia Mercado, member of the Congressional Labor Commission, pointed out that mothers who give up their jobs or careers do not represent individual failures, but rather respond to the design of the country’s economic system.
He also insisted that international organizations recommend that breastfeeding be continued for at least two years; However, Mexican legislation remains limited to six months, which, he said, “leaves mothers and nursing people in a cruel dilemma between feeding their daughters and sons or preserving their livelihood.”
“The proposal that Mexiro has presented to us points to a central concept: the sustainability of life. Although in this society motherhood is revered by word of mouth, many mothers have to breastfeed in the shadows and do so when the employer allows it, not when the child needs it,” he stressed.
The legislator said she was confident in having the support of the deputies to promote the approval of the initiative once it is presented to the Congress of the Union.
