The Lived Experience of Employed Mothers Transitioning Back to the Workplace While Breastfeeding

Background: Returning to work after childbirth is one of the major factors leading to early cessation of breastfeeding. Article 154 of the Saudi Labor Law gives employed nursing mothers the right to a daily breastfeeding break. However, little information is available regarding employed mothers’ experiences of returning to work while breastfeeding. To date, no qualitative studies have examined this transition experience among employed mothers in Hail City. Methods: This study employed a qualitative descriptive phenomenological design based on Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology and Colaizzi’s seven-step model. The researchers recruited 13 breastfeeding mothers (aged 27 to 32 years), who worked in various sectors such as government, education, healthcare, and private sectors, via purposeful and snowballing methods. Interviews were carried out face-to-face in Arabic, lasted approximately 30 to 50 min, and occurred one to eight months after the mothers returned to work. Saturation was reached when three consecutive interviews did not produce any new code or theme. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim in Arabic and translated into English, with the translation verified by a bilingual researcher who cross-checked a random sample of transcripts against the original Arabic audio recordings to ensure conceptual and linguistic accuracy. Data analysis was completed using Colaizzi’s seven steps, with NVivo software used only to manage the data. Trustworthiness was established using Lincoln and Guba’s criteria, including member checking, triangulation of sources, thick description, maintenance of an audit trail, and reflexive bracketing. Five of the 13 mothers reviewed and confirmed the summary of findings during member checking. Results: Five themes described the essential structure of the experience: (1) return anticipation, preparation, and quiet resolve; (2) the workplace as an unaccommodating space, with twelve of thirteen mothers lacking a lactation room, and most reporting no protected time and no safe milk storage; (3) the gulf between the law on paper and the law in practice: only two mothers knew of their Article 154 entitlement, and in participants’ accounts access rested on informal arrangements with supervisors rather than on stated workplace policy; (4) straddling two worlds, the guilt, anxiety, and divided identity of performing maternal and professional roles at the same time; and (5) circles of support, with family help, coworker solidarity, and personal determination described as key facilitators. Taken together, the accounts of the participants in this sample pointed to a fundamental structure of solitary negotiation. Mothers continued breastfeeding largely through personal and family effort, with little institutional support available to them. Conclusions: In this sample of employed mothers in Hail City, breastfeeding after return to work was sustained largely through personal and family effort rather than enforceable rights. These findings are specific to one city and one group of mothers, so they may not apply to other settings. They still point to the possible value of enforcing and raising awareness of Article 154, providing workplace lactation facilities, training supervisors, and offering anticipatory breastfeeding counseling during maternity leave.