The Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) becomes the first public institution in Cyprus to have a properly designed and equipped breastfeeding room, thus contributing to the encouragement of breastfeeding and supporting the breastfeeding mothers of the university community and their children. The room is centrally located within the University and next to the Vassilis Michaelides Library building.
Speaking at the inauguration of the room co-organized today by the Senate Committee for Equality and the Department of Nursing of TEPAK in the courtyard of the Library, the Rector of TEPAK, Professor Panagiotis Zafiris expressed his joy and satisfaction for the creation of this room, which, as he said, contributes to the creation of a more breastfeeding-friendly working environment.
The Rector congratulated the Senate Equality Committee and all those who contributed to the creation of the room, which is part of the integrated breastfeeding policy adopted by the University. He also praised the work of the Senate Committee for Equality in promoting and implementing actions on issues of equality, equal gender opportunities, women's empowerment and the rights of people with disabilities.
"With this room we, as a University, show our sensitivity and practical support to breastfeeding mothers and their children. At the same time, we become the first public institution in Cyprus to have such a breastfeeding and infant care room", noted Panagiotis Zafiris.
For her part, the President of the Senate Equality Committee, Professor Maria Kramvias-Kapardi thanked, in her turn, all those who helped and supported this effort for the creation of the breastfeeding room, which, she said, encourages breastfeeding and is a first step towards the implementation of the plan for the creation of a nursery and kindergarten at the University.
In her own welcome address, Assistant Professor at the Department of Nursing of CUT, Paediatrician and Breastfeeding Consultant, Urania Kolokotroni said that this is something very innovative for the working standards of Cyprus, which is dedicated to the mother who breastfeeds and pumps milk for her baby and which was created in the context of the wider breastfeeding policy of the University.
"This room is a small step in the right direction to make our University more breastfeeding-friendly and provide practical support to breastfeeding mothers and their children," he said, referring to the short and long-term beneficial properties of breastfeeding and the health benefits for the child and the mother.
"Although breastfeeding indicators have recorded some improvement in Cyprus in recent years, we still remain at the last positions in Europe in terms of exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding", said the Professor of CUT.
She also mentioned that breastfeeding is the responsibility of the state, which should, through organized action, create the appropriate conditions for a mother to successfully breastfeed her child, while at the same time expressing the need to cultivate a breastfeeding-friendly culture as a society.
He noted that the CUT has adopted a comprehensive breastfeeding policy "which does not remain and this is the most important thing in the minimum obligations of the employer under the labour legislation but adopts criteria of a more breastfeeding-friendly working environment such as the creation of the breastfeeding room that we are inaugurating today for use by members of the University community".
"As a nursing department that has education programs, training programs for health professionals related to breastfeeding but also has an active participation in the decision making centers for the implementation of the national strategy for breastfeeding and infant-friendly maternity hospitals, we feel great satisfaction and pride that our University is a pioneer in the creation of breastfeeding policy," he said.
"This shows the broader action of our University in achieving the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals and on this basis we will continue, as the Department of Nursing, to proceed, always with the support of our University, to develop further actions to support breastfeeding and motherhood, such as for example the University and Community Maternity Centre which we are planning in cooperation with the Limassol Municipality," Dr. Kolokotroni concluded.
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