05/08/2026
This week is World Breastfeeding Week (Aug 1–7). World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action’s (WABA) global data shows that only one in five countries currently require employers to provide both paid nursing breaks and a physical space to use them.
Did you know that Trinidad and Tobago is on track to join that group? If passed, the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2026, introduced in the Senate this year, would require employers to provide paid nursing breaks and designate an appropriate, private place for using them.
This year’s theme "Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works" reminds us that this is everyone's business. In our industry, we must ask the question directly: even where mothers have the paid nursing breaks, are our workspaces actually conducive?
As engineers who design the workplaces mothers return to, we see this as a practical, solvable facilities question, and one local employers should want to get ahead of before it becomes a statutory requirement.
We salute the The Breastfeeding Association of Trinidad and Tobago for the work they do to champion the cause locally.