Health workers help to bust breast-feeding myths

Many women living in informal settlements are adopting the World Health Organisation’s regulations on six months of exclusive breastfeeding for infants until the child is two years to reduce underweight and stunted children. PHOTO | FILE |   NATION MEDIA GROUP

By SANDRA CHAO

In Summary

• The study shows that women in urban poor settings face an extremely complex situation with regards to breastfeeding due to multiple challenges and risk behaviour often dictated to them by their circumstances and recommends macro-level policies and interventions.

When Annette Mumo Mulolo gave birth to her daughter last October, everyone around her was worried.

In her humble 10 by 10 house in Gitathuro in Nairobi’s Korogocho slum, she tells of how her Blessing Kavae was just about the size of her palm with her weight barely hitting two kilogrammes.

What followed was pressure from both sides of the family urging that in order to improve Kavae’s weight, she would need more than breast milk.

“Before I had given birth, I decided that I was going to breastfeed for six months as it is required, but it was not easy. When my mum saw the baby, she was so worried and insisted that she stay to help make porridge for the baby but I refused,” explained Ms Mulolo.

Ms Mulolo stood her ground, did odd jobs to supplement her husband’s income while breastfeeding. Today, the vibrant little one has just started to learn how to walk and at ten months she is healthy and weighs 10kg.

Ms Mulolo is among many women living in informal settlements around the country who are now adopting the World Health Organisation (WHO) regulations on six months exclusive breastfeeding for infants and complementary feeding until the child is two years to reduce underweight and stunted children.

Health workers say that most mothers opt out of exclusive breastfeeding because of poverty and as they seek jobs.

Debunking breastfeeding myths has now become a full-time job for health officials.

A study published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal BMC Public Health in 2011, which highlighted the breastfeeding trends in informal settlements in Nairobi, showed that more than 37 per cent of the children were not breastfed in the first hour following delivery.

According to the survey carried out in Korogocho and Viwandani slums, two in five of the children were given something to drink other than the mothers’ breast milk within three days following delivery.

The most common complementary foods given to children before the age of six months was plain water with most children on it having been given within the first month. A majority of children who were fed on porridge were introduced to it between the second and third months.

Fresh or powdered milk was also given to some children by their third month while some mothers and caregivers gave children sweetened or flavoured milk within their first month.

Dr Elizabeth Kimani-Murage an associate research scientist at African Population and Health Research Centre and one of the authors of  the research, proposes a multi-sectorial approach of talking to the whole community and other opinion leaders who influence the mother’s feeding practices.

The APHRC study showed that poverty was a key determinant of the length of time a mother breastfeeds. This is because most slum mothers work as casual labourers in the informal sector and go back almost immediately after delivery to fend for the rest of the family.

According to the researcher, one of the main myths that emerged during the research was that colostrum was dirty and not good for the baby because of its consistency and some mothers give their children pre-lacteal feeds like water, cow milk and porridge in the first days of life before the mother’s milk “starts  to flow”.