When Li Min's maternity leave ended, she asked her parents to take her baby to her office every day so she could breastfeed him.

"We would use any room we could. My mother guarded the door while I fed the baby," Li, a public relation manager for a foreign firm in Shanghai, said.

"But as I became busier at work, it became harder and harder to find time to feed the baby. As a result of that and because of the pressure of work my milk began to dry up.

"After two months I stopped breastfeeding. I wish I could have carried on for longer."

Li's predicament is similar to that of many working women trying to balance their professional lives with motherhood.

A recent survey by the China Consumers Association, which interviewed 15,000 mothers in 30 cities, found that just over half of them breastfed for six months or more.

Many said they had to stop because of work commitments. This is one of the reasons why the Shanghai Women's Federation has proposed the establishment of nurseries in community centers and office buildings for infants under 18 months to make the job of returning to work easier for new mothers.

The federation will make its submissions to the annual Shanghai People's Congress, which starts tomorrow, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Committee, which begins today.

Shi Qiuqin, a spokeswoman for the federation, told China Daily: "Mothers should be able to take their babies to work, feed them during breaks and take them home afterward, or leave them at a neighborhood nursery.

"It is important mothers and their babies have that contact because the first three years of a child's life have a huge impact on his or her whole life."

About 160,000 babies were born in Shanghai last year, and 170,000 are expected this year. However, the city's nurseries accept only infants aged over 18 months. Kindergartens are available for children between the ages of three and seven.

Most young couples rely on their parents to take care of their babies, but mothers who come from other provinces do not have that option, Shi said.

Under the federation's proposal, nurseries for babies under 18 months should be equipped with proper facilities and professional staff capable of nurturing the infants during their first formative years, she said. The services should also be fairly priced, with government departments made responsible for ensuring overcharging does not take place, Shi said.

Li, however, doubts the scheme will work. "It is not easy to travel to work with baby," she said. "And as babies need constant care, the nurseries would need lots of staff."

(China Daily January 23, 2008)