A nutrition expert, Mrs. Motunrayo Oduneye, has asked the Federal Government to make the six months maternal leave mandatory in the country to boost Nigeria’s exclusive breastfeeding rate and curb increasing cases of malnutrition in children across the country.
Oduneye, an assistant chief dietitian, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, while speaking at the quarterly Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) media engagement on infant and young children feeding practices, stated that making the six months maternity leave a national policy will ensure that woman can, even when there are no crèche, exclusively breastfeed their babies in the first six months of infancy.
The nutritionist said thus far, only five states in Nigeria had passed the mandatory six months maternity leave as law.
According to her, “breast milk is all a baby needs in the first six months of life; its nutrient content is sufficient for a child. Exclusive breastfeeding will also help the mother go back to their initial weight before pregnancy.”
Earlier, the state coordinator for CS-SUNN, Mr. Segun Adio, stated that stunted growth, a severe form of malnutrition, is highly prevalent among Nigerian children and called for the media’s support for good nutrition in children to stem this condition that is contrary to national development.
“Nutrition is not just about food, it is about development and productivity. That is why we are saying everybody must have a better understanding of what nutrition is all about. Partnering with the media, we want to make sure that mothers take advantage of the six months maternity leave to exclusively breastfeed their babies for six months and then practice good complementary feeding thereafter so that their babies can grow very well and be later productive.”
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