A new scheme will let Australian offices proudly proclaim their acceptance of breastfeeding.

The Australian Breastfeeding Association has launched the Friendly Workplace Program in the hope of increasing national breastfeeding rates.

The program encourages employers to set up an environment where workers can express breastmilk or feed their babies at work.

Ninety-six per cent of Australian women start with exclusive breastfeeding, but that figures drops about 15 per cent after five months.

Australian Breastfeeding Association chief executive Rebecca Naylor says that about one-in-four Australian women go back to work within six months of giving birth, and workplaces needed to recognise their role in supporting breastfeeding.

“We know that if 90 per cent of babies were exclusively breastfed to six months, then we could save the health system around $120 million,” Ms Naylor ABC reporters.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend that babies should be breast-fed exclusively for six months, until solid foods are introduced.

Ms Naylor says there are a number of simple things that can assist breastfeeding mothers in the workplace.

“If [working] women want to continue breastfeeding, then they need a clean and private place to express or in some cases feed their child,” Ms Naylor said.

“They need policies that support that so that they can have lactation breaks.

“They need a culture at work that says; ‘We want to support you’.

“Some women need to return to work, and many women want to return to work. And we need to create a community in which it's possible for them to do that.”

Workplaces can register for accreditation here.