700 Babies Die Daily In Nigeria –Varsity Don

About 700 newborns die daily in Nigeria,  translating to about 240, 000 deaths annually, a professor of Pediatrics at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Chinyere Ezeaka,  has revealed.
The professor made the disclosure on Monday during a three-day workshop organised by the Nestle Nutrition Institute of Africa through its CWAR Advanced Nutrition Programme for anglophone countries with the theme: “Maternal and Infant Nutrition”, held at the Conference Hall of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)in Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to her, the gory statistics make Nigeria the highest in Africa and second in the world after India, in terms of infant mortality.
Prof Ezeaka said nutrition was a basic necessity during pregnancy as it had an effect on the health of a mother and the unborn child. She said malnutrition was a major public health problem for both mothers and infants, adding that the problem of neonatal mortality  was related to maternal and infant nutrition.
Proper nutrition during the first 1000 days spanning the time of conception to the first two years of the newborn, she said, would save a lot of children from having low birth weight, being malnourished, growth retarded and would go along way to assist in the brain development of every child.
Her words:”To help this, we now look at the mother, if she’s  well nourished, healthy, psychologically balanced to be able to cope with pregnancy.
During pregnancy, we should be looking at what the mother eats and this includes the quantity and nutrients needed as well as support she has in terms of information on how to accumulate the necessary health status”.
The problem, she said,  was aggravated by the fact that the country was more concerned  containing under-five  mortality rates and neglecting the newborns.
Ezeaka  also stressed the need for exclusive breast feeding as a natural supplement  to prevent all infections a baby could get at its tender period. She urged women to attend ante-natal during pregnancy, prevent malaria and other diseases to avoid bearing low weight babies.
Corroborating Ezeaka’s position on breast feeding, Prof. Matilda Steiner-Aseidu, a guest speaker, said an average well nourished mother would produce between 750 to 800 millimeters of milk per day without necessarily adding any supplement, saying breast milk contains more nutrients than  other nutritional supplements including cow milk.
Steiner said breast-feeding was important to help babies survive. She said apart from the fact that it helps in the physical and psychological growth of children, it helps mothers shed weight, reduce depression, and reduces the risk of breast cancer.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), she added,  had come up with a breast feeding policy to help communicate the benefits of breast milk.
“The aim of this code is to protect and promote breast feeding by ensuring appropriate marketing and distribution of breast feeding substitutes”, she explained.
Source:sunnewsonline.com