Mothers - Uganda Multimedia News & Information

Children and pregnant women facing mulnutrition

Isaac Senabulya — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 14:27:11 +0000

Nutrition experts warn that the continued the feeding of children and pregnant mothers with none nutritional foods will impact negatively on the country’s economy and health living of the population. The nutrition specialist at Jinja regional hospital, Toko Mansuru says that most Ugandans have failed to provide their children and themselves with nutritious foods but instead opt to feed on foods that they come across which has caused malnutrition among most Ugandan children. He says that foods which are not with nutrition developed severe conditions like acute malnutrition thus resulting into serious deficiencies among them being diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity for those who are over fed, cancers among other diseases which are expensive to treat at health facilities.

Meanwhile, Alex Kisembo the marketing director, RECO industries, a company that manufactures fortified foods which are given to persons who are malnourished says that its better for Ugandans to always feed on a balanced diet than just eating for the sake of getting satisfied. Kisembo adds that to avoid such conditions they should eat fortified foods so as they do not spend over three months in hospital. He further calls for a combined effort and strategies from all government departments and agencies to expeditiously address the issue of malnutrition among Ugandan children if this burden is to be solved.

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Parliament spearheads campaign for breastfeeding facilities in workplaces

Gerald Businge — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 08:28:43 +0000

Parliament undertakes to spearhead a campaign to ensure all workplaces have facilities that enable mothers to breastfeed. This will make mothers take care of their babies in order to uphold rights of children and also ensure efficiency.

The speaker of parliament Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga says that if the campaign is successful, the country will have a policy in place which will require all employers and Government departments to adhere to. Kadaga was speaking at the opening of a new breastfeeding centre at parliament which will be exclusively used by members of parliament and staff of parliament. She says that parliament was forced by the women members of parliament to have this facility after they threatened to go with their babies in the parliamentary chamber when there is a parliamentary session.

The facility which can currently house 8 babies has been set up in one of the buildings recovered from the president’s office with parliament spending 90 million shillings to refurbish and equip it. Parliamentary commissioners Rose Akol and Rosemary Seninde say that this facility will be helpful since staff of parliament and MPs will have to reduce on the number of days they spend on maternity leave.

GALLERY

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30 years Down the Road: Another Reason to Breastfeed

Emma Laura N. Kisa — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 10:24:12 +0000

For years now mothers have been encouraged to breastfeed their babies because of the many benefits, with breast milk referred to as the perfect food for baby. Breastfeeding’s short-term benefits have long been clear, including the fact that it strengthens the immune system hence the baby is resistant to disease and infection. Benefits for the mothers are also many with mothers being less likely to develop osteoporosis later in life, are able to lose weight gained during pregnancy more easily and have a lower risk of breast, uterine and ovarian cancer.

However the long term breastfeeding benefits had never been established. In a recently concluded study published in The Lancet, it has been discovered that breastfeeding has long term benefits for up to 30 years.

The Findings:

According to the study ‘From June 4, 2012, to Feb 28, 2013, of the 5914 neonates enrolled, information about IQ and breastfeeding duration was available for 3493 participants. In the crude and adjusted analyses, the durations of total breastfeeding and predominant breastfeeding (breastfeeding as the main form of nutrition with some other foods) were positively associated with IQ, educational attainment, and income. We identified dose-response associations with breastfeeding duration for IQ and educational attainment. In the confounder-adjusted analysis, participants who were breastfed for 12 months or more had higher IQ scores (difference of 3·76 points, 95% CI 2·20–5·33), more years of education (0·91 years, 0·42–1·40), and higher monthly incomes (341·0 Brazilian reals, 93·8–588·3) than did those who were breastfed for less than 1 month. The results of our mediation analysis suggested that IQ was responsible for 72% of the effect on income.’

This is interpreted as breastfeeding being associated with improved performance in intelligence tests 30 years later, by increasing educational attainment and income in adulthood. Here is yet another reason to breast feed your baby; to give them a better future which will ultimately feed into the nation’s future.

Read the full report here Lancet Report

Below is an audio of a discussion of the findings:
http://www.thelancet.com/cms/attachment/2027288821/2045722748/mmc2.mp3

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Number 5

Emma Laura N. Kisa — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:16:29 +0000

On May 15th 1989 my mother, Resty Nakanwagi, passed from this life, leaving me and my older siblings motherless. A sadder detail is that she left a new born baby because she died in child birth. In my native toungue, Luganda, giving birth is refered to as a woman’s fight. How true that is! Fast forward 24 years later – 2013: September, 23 year old Florence Nakamya lost her life in child birth while in labour in Mukono, a municipality of Uganda; August, 21-year-old Janet Aloyo lost her baby and died in Gulu Regional Referral Hospital corridors. Sylvia Nalubowa (Mityana), Jennifer Anguko (Arua) … One would think so many years down the road the story would be different – hopeful, changed.

Millenium Development Goal number 5 is to improve Maternal health being the one would think it would be better. With 2015 closing in, the deadline for these goals, the report is not a good one. According to the UNDP, maternal mortality has declined by nearly half since 1990, but falls far short of the MDG target. The progress reports note that Despite good progress, Africa still has the greatest burden of child and maternal deaths.

In Uganda some petitioners have sued the government for allegedly failing to prevent maternal deaths and this case is yet to be heard. One can only ask what is the hope for all these women? Can these unnecessary deaths be avoided? If so where is the solution. If not? Where does the problem lie?

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