The World Health Organisation (WHO) has advised governments at all levels in the country to create lactation rooms in ministries, agencies, and parastatals to encourage exclusive breastfeeding among nursing mothers.
Speaking at the flag off of World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) and Maternal, Newborn, Child Health Week by the Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency in Ilorin on Monday, the state coordinator of WHO, Salihu Abdullahi, said that such places, when created, would afford nursing mothers the opportunity to feed their children with breast milk for up to two years, even while working.
Represented by Professor Ibrahim Abdulraheem, the WHO official also advised nursing mothers to continue with exclusive breastfeeding to protect, develop, and make their children grow well. He said that mothers who practice exclusive breastfeeding are always healthy and happy.
“Breastfeeding is very important in the life of children. And when we talk about breastfeeding, we’re talking about exclusive breastfeeding, which is nothing but breast milk for the first six months in the life of the newborn. So, we want the state government and its agencies to continue to support initiatives on exclusive breastfeeding.”
He commended the state government for approving six months of maternity leave for nursing mothers, stating that Kwara state was among the first five state governments to do so.
The organization said that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara state is bringing the state back to focus with its health development projects and programmes, and enjoined the state government to continue with such initiatives, promising that the organization would continue to collaborate with the government.
This year’s World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), themed “Enabling breastfeeding, making a difference for working parents,” aims to raise awareness on the approved six-month maternal leave by the Kwara state government, as well as engage organisations to support breastfeeding at workplaces by setting up creches.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Nusirat Elelu, said that the common goal of the two health interventions being flagged off was to reduce morbidity and mortality among women of childbearing age and under-5 children in the state.
Dr Elelu also said that policies of the Kwara state government under the leadership of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq had led to improvement in the health indices of the state in the last five years.
“For example, the number of children exclusively breastfed improved from 35.7% in 2016 to 57.6% in 2021. Also, 79% of pregnant women in Kwara state were attended to by skilled birth attendants, far above the national average of 50.7%,” she said.
The World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is celebrated every 1st – 7th of August in commemoration of the 1990 Innocenti Declaration.
Speaking at the event, the wife of the governor, Ambassador Mrs Olufolake Abdulrazaq, commended the Kwara state government for approving six months of maternity leave for nursing mothers and setting up creches in various ministries to encourage mothers to breastfeed even while at work.
The wife of the governor also said that the flag off of the Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Week (MNCHW) was another health intervention which focuses on maternal health care services like ante-natal care, family planning, as well as other child survival strategies like immunisation and nutrition-sensitive interventions.
“These services would be made available in all the 193 wards of the state from August 7th to 11th to ensure increased utilization of low-cost and high-impact interventions during the period.
“These interventions are aimed at reducing the unacceptable morbidity and mortality among women and under-5 children in Nigeria.
The commitment of this administration is, however, changing the narrative in the State, as Kwara has one of the lowest under-5 mortalities in the country according to the recent result of the UNICEF multiple indicator cluster survey.
Mrs Abdulrazaq assured that the state government was deliberate about issues related to mothers and children, “as evidenced in all the interventions across health, women affairs, and social development, and my office and the Ajike People Support Centre are sincerely committed to fostering this drive.”
The highlight of the event was an award presentation to the Chairman of the Ilorin South Local Government Council, Mallam Zubair Sulu-Gambari, for promoting healthcare among mothers and children in the area.
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