FEATURE: MOTHERS RAISE CONCERN OVER LACK OF BREASTFEEDING SPACES IN INSTITUTIONS

Mother’s breast feed their babies at a space created for them during the launch of breastfeeding in Yumbe district last week. PHOTO BY ROBERT ELEMA

BY ROBERT ELEMA

YUMBE
A section of the working class mothers in Yumbe district have raised concern over lack of breastfeeding corners for breast feeding their children in the offices and institutions in which they work.

According to the mothers, due to the absence of such spaces and strict polices by partners, they leave their children at home and they are fed on bottled milk which is not recommended.

In an interview at the weekend, Ms Betty Ekiisa, 40, a refugee in Bidibidi refugee settlement said, before war broke out in South Sudan in 2013, she was a teacher at Ngulere primary school.

While in South Sudan, Ekiisa says, the school she was teaching in had no breasting corner that would always force her to leave the baby at home with the baby seater taking care of him. ‘’I am a mother of 3 children now, but when I had the first born, I was not giving much time to breastfeed the baby because I was working. I would leave the baby at home and the baby was fed on bottled milk which is a common practice by mothers who work in different institutions,’’ she said.

According to Ekiisa, when she had the second child, she tried to introduce the baby to bottled feeding but the child refused and it made her to continue breastfeeding him for 24 hours.

Ekiisa says, when she compares the two children, the one fed on bottled milk has very weak immune system but the one fed on breast milk has very strong immune system.

She came to Uganda in 2016 and she is currently working as a caregiver at Alpha Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre in Bidibidi Zone one settlement and in that facility there’s breastfeeding corner created. ‘’We have our sisters who have babies and they are working with the different partners in Bidibidi refugee settlement. They leave the children at home the whole day, they continue working in the offices and helping the community, how about their own children? It’s my humble appeal to UNHCR and all the implementing partners to have baby corners in their offices so that the mothers will be able to help their own children,’’ she said.

She said, ideally, a child has to be breastfed around 12 times a day but if the mother is not there the whole day, which means the child will be breastfed at night which weakens the immune system of the child.

Similarly, a female teacher at Barakala Primary School who preferred anonymity says, its normally challenging at the time of attending to their children because the school lacks baby corners. ‘’The absence of such facilities is a problem to the female teachers who have babies at the school. At the time of lessons, we sometimes tie the babies on the back and enter for lessons with them and the babies sometimes cry disrupting lessons and that they end up breastfeeding the babies in open places in the school which is not good,’’ she said.

Ms Eunice Atyang the deputy Program Manager at Action Against Hunger (ACF), said its very important to come together and strengthen breastfeeding by enforcing the codes of breastfeeding at the national level, the health system, the work place, the community and outline solutions to close the gaps. ‘’At the health facilities, the health workers are doing a great job with the baby friendly health facility initiatives. As we educate our mothers on breastfeeding in the health facilities, we also want the fathers to support the mothers at home and the community leaders to strengthen this gap by sending the mothers to the facility for antenatal and postnatal visits,’’ she said.

Sr Irene Maturu the Assistant District Health Officer in charge of Maternal and Child Health, said breast milk provides all food nutrients and protect the body from sicknesses and it’s very important for the child’s growth and development. She said, it’s mandatory that a baby should be breastfed at least for 2 years right from delivery. ‘’in many of our offices, breast feeding corners are not there. This is where we have gaps so, we suggest that all our offices should open up breastfeeding corners for all the mothers to breastfeed their children comfortably,’’ she said.

She encouraged the mothers especially the refugees, though they are vulnerable and don’t have something to support the babies but they should work hard that they breast their babies knowing the importance of breast milk.

Mr Abubakar Banga, the UNHCR Field Assistant, said it’s true that there are teachers and other members of staff working in other offices but they lack spaces for breast feeding their children.

He said, this is a pertinent issue which needs to be addressed but they are constrained by lack of resources. ‘’I want to request the partners and the local governments to forge a way forward to address this gap because for us as UNHCR, we are now localizing all the activities as the local government know that we are in transition to allow all the activities which we used to undertake to the government,’’ he said.

“When a female UNHCR staff delivers, this mother is given not less than 6months to be at home with the child and when the staff reports back for work, her reporting time for work and leaving the work station differs from other staff who are not in that situation to attend to her baby which is a very good policy,’’ he added.

Mr. Banga however said, it’s the policy of each organization to see how this matter on breastfeeding spaces is operationalized and that the partners shouldn’t toughen their policies because if the children are not breastfed well, they can get problems.

Mr. Denis Ayiko the World Food Programme (WFP) coordinator at Bidibidi refugee settlement, said the mandate of WFP is to fight malnutrition especially the moderately acute malnutrition.

He said, breastfeeding is part of it because if you breastfeed your child very well, you are contributing directly to fighting malnutrition in children. “I want to appreciate the livelihood partners for supporting the mothers with seeds and seedlings but without the seeds, these mothers would find it hard to get nutritious foods. The local food materials are very important for us because currently we are supporting mothers at the health facilities with supplementary food (therapeutic food) but when the donors may not have money for such supplements, our mothers can be encouraged to prepare nutritious food out of the local food materials,’’ he said.