BY: ABDUL MARTINS FODAY AMARA.
The District Health Management Team, Kenema District, with support from UNICE, F has toured various communities in Kenema District and PHUs where they delivered various health advice on caring for babies from zero to six months and beyond with exclusive breastfeeding.
The tour targeted more than ten communities and different categories of people were spoken to like lactating mothers, pregnant women, community elders, youths, and many more. Specialists from the Nutrition Department attached to the Kenema Government Hospital were all in attendance.
The head of the team from DHMT, who also doubles as the District Nutritionist, Madam Mania Lahai, informed the audience that exclusive breastfeeding is the only magic for the unhindered growth and development of children. "According to the United Nations standard, Exclusive breastfeeding simply means when a child is from 0-6 months, the child should only live on his/her mother's Breast milk no matter what happens. It is high time we change the old systems and mentality of bringing up our children".
"When a child is below the age of six months, all that is needed for proper growth and medical ingredients are embedded in the breast milk. Exclusive breastfeeding should immediately start at birth. This is called early initiation and our health workers at various stations are always ready to implement that. Breast milk itself is made of various components and if a child is properly fed with it, thus complements all other medical needs", Madam informed.
She furthered that husbands/fathers too have a greater role to play in making sure that their children are exclusively breastfed. They can the women with some chores to allow mothers to concentrate on feeding their babies. She told the gathering that for proper breastfeeding to take place, lactating mothers should adequately sit down for 25-30 minutes to do that. By then, all the food values needed for that moment would have been supplied to the child.
She maintained that although the economy is not stable, that should not be the reason why fathers should allow their partners to starve. He called on fathers to provide support to lactating mothers when necessary so that the mothers too could feel relaxed while breastfeeding their babies. She also called on community elders, youths, and everyone to always make sure that lactating mothers live with the simple principles so that their children could grow properly.
Almost all the various community elders applauded the team from DHMT for taking such a good message to them. For quite a while now people believed that when children are above three months ordinary breast milk cannot satisfy them any longer, which is why they are always given complimentary foods to substitute breast milk. "They also believed that all medical conditions from the baby can only be cured either by native herbs and changing the feeding system of the child".
"It is very unusual to see mothers breastfeeding their babies for more than 5-10 minutes in the interior areas. These are the mothers who always complain of breast milk not satisfying the food needs of the child. I want to encourage all mothers to strictly follow all procedures highlighted here today by the medical team for the proper growth of our children ", chief Lansana Gombulango of Komende Village pleaded.
A representative from the mothers from Combema Village lauded the team for taking such a wonderful message to them. She confessed that over the years, they had not been practicing proper breastfeeding in their respective families irrespective of all that they had been hearing from healthcare workers.
On behalf of her colleagues, she made a firm commitment to always treat the message with utmost importance, thereby entreating lactating mothers to live by example and always practice exclusive breastfeeding for the proper and healthy growth of their babies.
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