A mother proudly holding her little boy – I’m working hard to give more mothers that special moment (©VSO/Paul James Driscoll)
It’s estimated that an astounding 800,000 babies could be saved every year if they were breastfed by their mothers. I’m sure most of you are aware breast milk acts as the first vaccine to help fight disease and illness, provides nutrients for the baby to grow up healthy and also strengthens the unbreakable bond between mothers and their little ones.
In countries like Ethiopia, where unfortunately disease still remains high and most people’s diets lack essential nutrients, mum’s milk is the best gift she can give her baby – with their little one six times more likely to survive the first 28 days of their life.
Although in the UK, mothers can decide to swap their baby on to formula milk from an early age and know they are still getting the essential antibodies and nutrients they need, this isn’t an option across most of Africa.
When a tin of formula milk costs 200 birr (around £6), which is more than one day’s wages, natural feeding is the only option. Even if an Ethiopian family can afford the occasional tin of formula, it is often mixed with contaminated water full of disease, which is very dangerous and can even be fatal for fragile new-borns.
The Nestlé scandal of marketing formula to be “as good as breast milk” across Africa, which instead simply poisoned babies with unsafe water, was a hot topic whilst I was studying to become a doctor, and a tragedy that has still continued until very recently.
Luckily, the message of how important breastfeeding is for keeping babies healthy rather than using formula is spreading in Ethiopia. Culture here is much more open with breastfeeding, with women freely nursing their children – which I think is so wonderful!
How Abi Adi Hospital can help
Breastfeeding doesn’t always come naturally – so my colleagues are able to save more lives by giving mum and baby some simple checks and warm encouragement.
I’ve recently done a refresher course for staff at Abi Adi Hospital on the importance of checking that all mothers are able to comfortably breastfeed.
We’ve also changed the discharge policy on the ward now in light of the training, so that breastfeeding goes alongside the other routine checks made before mother and baby can go home. We can then be confident all babies leaving the hospital have the best possible chance of surviving their early years and growing into a healthy, happy toddler.
A discharge check on one of our recent patients (©VSO/Ginny Lattul)
And we’ve helped new nurses too
VSO has also gone one step further to help ensure more babies can be saved through breastfeeding. A training handbook has been written to help new neonatal nurses, and it features a whole chapter on the importance of breastfeeding. This is currently being used in Ethiopia and several other countries across Africa. The World Health Organisation has started to actively promote this practice too – so well done VSO, and all of us at Abi Adi Hospital, for being ahead of the game!
Thank you
Although this is a small change in ward practices for Abi Adi Hospital, it’s massive leap in the right direction to keep more babies alive during their critical first few months. My colleagues have embraced this warm encouragement to help mothers, and are getting great satisfaction from their discharge checks knowing all babies leaving the hospital are as healthy as they can be.
Of course it also cost us absolutely nothing – just guiding mothers to use nature to nurse and nurture their newborns. And you’ll be pleased to know that many more VSO volunteers are working alongside their local colleagues, to spread these practices and give more mothers and their babies a helping hand - so thank you so much for standing alongside us all.
Look forward to catching up again soon,
Alexa
