Unions help young working mothers

The "Loving Mommy's Room" in a downtown office building has, for the first time in Shanghai, given young career women a place to resolve the conflicts they face between work and family.

A career woman can milk her baby in a private corner in the room, which is furnished with red couches and a white coffee table. A refrigerator stands against the wall, offering a sanitary storage place for breast milk, which the mother can take home.

Currently, only about 30 percent of newborns younger than 6 months old are breast-fed exclusively on the Chinese mainland, a recent survey of Ministry of Health showed.

Speaking on Wednesday - the first day of World Breastfeeding Week this year - senior ministry official Xu Xiaochao said the ministry will make a major effort to increase the rate to 50 percent by 2020, but success will require the cooperation of all stakeholders, including hospitals, families, and communities.

The room on the fourth floor of the Catic Building at 212 Jiangning Road of Jing'an district is the first of its kind in Shanghai, according to Zhou Miao, a staff member of the Shanghai Women's Federation.

Catic was the first office building in Shanghai to open "the Women's Home" two years ago, said the federation.

"We have a laundry outlet shop, a fruits shop, and a cafeteria that can be used as a counseling room for women to deal with pressure and distress." Zhou said.

The "Loving Mommy's Room" is a room separated from screen doors in the cafeteria in the 28-story office building. "There are more than 1,000 women working in our building, and the room was created to satisfy the special needs of this large group," said Xiao Suhua, head of the workers' union of the building.

The Loving Mommy's Room provides a cozy milking corner for young mothers such as Wang Junjie, who works on the 12th floor. "Without the room, I would have been forced to do my milking in the bathroom," she said. "There is a foul smell, and the environment could hardly be described as hygenic."

A survey of women's status in the city from the Shanghai Women's Federation earlier this year showed that career women are faced with conflicts between work and family, and were especially burdened with household chores.

The survey said that the majority of married women - 53 percent - do most or all of the housework such as cooking, doing the dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, and child care. Married women spend 10 to 30 more minutes working for their job and home every day than their male counterparts. Many have to stop their career life and spend more than half a year without job income because of family obligations.

It will take more than women's-rights groups to promote the concept and introduce it to more buildings in town, said Xie Xi, director of the community branch of the women's federation.