Koforidua (Eastern Region) 27 June 2003 - Women in the Civil Service have advocated for an extension in Maternity Leave to six months to allow for exclusive breast feeding during the period.

The present three month maternity leave split into two makes for six weeks before and after birth, which makes it difficult for women to care and wean their infants properly.

Contributing at a lecture to mark Civil Service Week at Koforidua on Thursday, they also suggested that centres should be attached to the various Ministries for babies of nursing mothers to be breast feed frequently and to save them the exorbitant fees charged by cr?ches.

Speaking on "The challenges of the career woman in the Civil Service," Mrs Janet Kwapong, Regional Co-ordinator for National Commission on Women and Development (NCWD), noted that women in the Civil Service were faced with both reproductive and productive work.

"Domestic responsibility including child care affect their concentration and output at their workplace," she said and suggested that women in the service should be contacted before transfers to ensure that they did not affect caring for their families. "Sudden transfers bring about divided attention, her marriage is threatened and children's upbringing is jeopardised," she said.

Thomas Nathan Dwirah, Eastern Regional Secretary of the Civil Servants Association, expressed concern about the late arrival of participants at the function, which was about one and half hours late and urged Civil Servants to "forget about the Ghanaian attitude of African punctuality," to set good example.

He blamed some men for contributing to the challenges of career women, adding that, "how do you expect your wife to concentrate at her work place when you make her pregnant after every one and half years". Dwirah advised women to manage their time judiciously so that their role in the home did not affect performance in their organisations.