Issues
Mothers And Breast Feeding
Tina, a 25-year old model, is apprehensive about marriage for one reason; she dreads losing her beautiful shape when child-bearing sets in, because of the erroneous belief that her breast would fall and become flat.
Mrs Yemisi Ajibade, a 32-year old mother of two, is also not convinced that exclusive breast-feeding practice could provide the immunisation necessary for survival and development of children.
Since exclusive breast-feeding means that an infant receives only breast milk with no additional food or liquid, not even water in the first six months of the baby’s life, some mothers see it as a practice which can have a drag on their shapes.
Therefore, in most cases, mothers negate the principle of exclusive breast-feeding practice by adding infant milk and water to the child’s diet.
But experts say that whether or not a mother breast feeds, at one point in a woman’s life, the shape of the breast which spinsters protect, will be altered.
“Breast-feeding does not make a woman’s chest flat. If anything, the breast becomes fuller when a woman is breast feeding.
“This is because it is going to contain all the fluid that goes into the baby’s mouth so it will expand and each time a woman is breast feeding, the turgidity of the breast remains.
“There are many women who have not breast fed all their lives and yet have flat chest,” says Bunmi Ogundimu, a medical doctor.
Experts also say that it has been proved that exclusive breast-feeding provides all the ingredients to boost the immunity of a baby as they grow.
According to UNICEF, exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months of life reduces infant mortality linked to common childhood illnesses and malnutrition.
Mrs Ann Veneman, the former UNICEF Executive Director, said “Breast-feeding is a key tool in improving child survival and can avert up to 13 per cent of under-five deaths in developing countries, if it is effectively practised.”
The experts’ belief is that breast milk is the natural first food for babies which provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first months of life.
They believe that it continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year and up to one-third during the second year of life.
In the light of this, the campaign for breast-feeding became more pronounced in the 80s during the tenure of the former Minister of Health, late Prof. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti.
Ransome-Kuti, a renowned paediatrician, led the breast feeding campaign in Nigeria while UNICEF and WHO jointly launched the baby-friendly hospital initiative in 1992 and the World Breast-feeding Week was inaugurated.
He ensured exclusive use of breast-feeding in Nigerian hospitals, which began in teaching hospitals in Lagos, Ibadan and Zaria.
The success of the campaign is evident in the Ministry of Health’s report that more than 1,149 hospitals and health care centres across the country have become baby-friendly.
Since its inauguration in that year, it has also gained prominence so much so that more than 170 countries celebrate the week yearly, from August 1 to August 7.
Commenting on the importance of the week, Mrs Celine Njoku, the Assistant Director in charge of Infant and Young Child Feeding (Nutrition Division), Ministry of Health, says this year’s celebration will allow the stakeholders to assess what Nigeria has achieved so far.
Njoku says the 2003 National Demographic Health Survey put the rate of exclusive breast feeding at 17 per cent which she said, dropped to 13 per cent in 2008.
Njoku attributed the decline to the HIV epidemic and the lack of effective and efficient sensitisation process.
She said the epidemic brought down the exclusive breast feeding rate because from 2003 to 2008, there was the incidence of HIV when most women were aware of the dangers involved in HIV-positive mothers to breast feed.
“They started adding infant formula and it affected the children and there was malnutrition which increased the mortality rate and the inadequate promotion of breast feeding reduced the rate also.
She said WHO’s recommendations on infant feeding in the context of HIV had shown that anti-retroviral (ARV) intervention to either the HIV-infected mother or HIV-exposed infant can significantly reduce the risk of postnatal transmission of HIV through breast feeding.
Njoku said Nigeria subsequently adopted one of the recommendations by WHO for breast-feeding in the context of HIV; that is, for infected mother to breast feed and receive ARV interventions.
“What this means is that these infected mothers will do exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months and thereafter continue breast feeding for one year but with adequate complementary food and anti-retroviral therapy
“All our documents on infants and young child feeding have incorporated the new national recommendation which is ongoing.
“We have flyers on infant and young child feeding in the context of HIV which was launched in the 54 National Council of Health last year and it was disseminated to all the states for them to implement.
“We have trained and are still training health workers to that effect. So now, no woman should have any excuse not to breast feed her child,” she said.
However, some mothers have different views about breast-feeding, irrespective of the medical prescriptions and experts’ belief.
A mother, Chioma, notes that she does not breast-feed because of the nature of her job, saying “I am a journalist and I have to go out for assignments and that is why I introduced formulae after three months.
“I didn’t also express the milk because I feel it is quite difficult a process; handling and preservation’’.
However, Bimpe, another mother, says she does exclusive breast feeding for all her three children because “while I was growing up, my mum used to say, this bond I have with you and your siblings is because I breast fed all of you.
“I was determined to have that same bond with my children and made up my mind to breast feed all my children.
“All my kids are very healthy, they rarely take ill except for the usual malaria, and attending antenatal clinics also helped me to realise the importance of exclusive breast-feeding’’.
For economic reason, Mrs Folashade a petty trader says “it is cheaper for me to breast-feed my children, I breast-fed two of my children till three years because I could not always afford to buy baby milk”.
Experts also warn that infant formulae have their disadvantages, stressing that none of the antibodies found in breast milk are found in manufactured formulae.
Dr Osaze Edward, a paediatrician, says that that the hygiene involved in making formulae may not be optimal and can lead to diarrhoea which is one of the leading causes of death in babies.
“Formulae do not offer any immediate immunity to the child so the child will be prone to infections.
“The tendency for the mother and child to bond is not there and formula is not cost-effective for the mother and the nation because we spend a lot of money to import baby food,” he said.
He says breast milk promotes sensory and cognitive development, and protects the infant against infectious and chronic diseases.
Another medical doctor, Fortune Fiberisima says breast-feeding is the safest, cheapest, available, affordable and most convenient way of feeding the child which ensures its survival.
He says: “Breast milk provides newborns with the nutrients and protection (antibodies) they need from several diseases and also prevents malnutrition and death; therefore, breast-feeding remains a mother’s best gift to herself, her baby and the world.”
According to him, breast-feeding protects women from anaemia, some cancers and also serves as a natural birth control to the mother.
UNICEF reports also indicates that breast-feeding keeps babies from the risk of gastrointestinal infection, respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, ear infections, and obesity.
As the world celebrates the 2012 World Breast-feeding Week, it behoves on all the stakeholders in the health sector to uphold the right practice, experts say.
The theme for the 2012 week is: Understanding the Past, Planning the Future: Celebrating 10 years of WHO/UNICEF’s Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding.
Oghenekaro writes for NAN
Okeoghene Oghenekaro
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
