FCT Health Official urges supportive workplaces for breastfeeding mothers

The Deputy Director of Nutrition, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Primary Health Care Board, Ngozi Nnenna Eze stressed the need for the sustainable implementation of policies that support breastfeeding mothers, particularly in workplaces.

Eze who made this call Thursday at Community Sensitization event held in Apo Resettlement Centre, Abuja as part of activities marking the 2025 World Breastfeeding Week emphasized the need for breastfeeding-friendly environments that would be conducive for breastfeeding mothers.

She also advocated for proper training and retraining of health workers to acquire skills that would enable them deliver services to caregivers, pregnant women, nursing mothers, fathers, and anyone in the community.

According to her, “We came here to sensitize the community, the nursing mothers, pregnant women. It’s part of the activities to increase the breastfeeding index. We do community sensitization, ensuring that everybody is aware of the right information as regards breastfeeding.

“Also, part of what we are going to do is capacity building for frontline health workers to build their capacity to deliver appropriate information to caregivers, the community on breastfeeding. Another thing that is on the burner is implementation of the six months paid maternity leave for every nursing mother.

“What we can also do, is to protect, support and promote breastfeeding. There is need to provide friendly environment in the workplaces for nursing mothers to have a place they can comfortably breastfeed.

“To ensure that nursing mothers when they return to work will be provided two hours break to rest and breastfeed properly. And also ensure that breastfeeding services in the community and facility are appropriately recorded in our data tools.

“Breastfeeding campaign is not just only during the week, just that, that time there is a lot of emphasis of breastfeeding in all our routine services. When pregnant women, nursing mothers come for their routine services they are taught extensively on the importance of breastfeeding and other things.

“We carry this campaign into the communities, churches, mosques and market places to discuss importance of breastfeeding. How the women can breastfeed? And these are the things that have been done and the exercise will continue even beyond the World Breastfeeding Week.

“Remember we are looking at sustainability. So, beyond the campaign, there will be more sensitization, capacity building, awareness creation, going to the press.

“The campaign is not ending this week actually, like for us in the FCT, our own campaign starts next week. Because this week, we have to allow the Federal Government to do theirs because we are hosting them.

“The one-week campaign is not enough because breastfeeding is something that is done every day. There are skills that are needed for the woman to breastfeed. The health worker is also supposed to have skills to be able to deliver services to caregivers, pregnant women, nursing mothers, fathers, and anyone in the community. “They need to have the right information and the skills to be able to do their job. For instance, there are counselling skills for a health worker to be able to counsel a pregnant woman, a caregiver and nursing mothers. There is communication and listening skills in the communication skill. That health worker needs to be trained to able to deliver it.

“To support a pregnant woman that gave birth, you need to know what to do to be able to put the baby to breast as a health worker. Even if you’re bringing another person to help you to support the person, you have to know what to do to be able to do that.

“There is this skill attachment, if you don’t attach a baby properly, you will not be able to have successful breastfeeding. There is also proper positioning. These are the things that anybody that have to support a pregnant woman to breastfeed has to know” she noted.

Also speaking, Nutrition Technical Lead of National Primary Health Care Development Agency and Trustee of Community Action for improved Nutrition, Dr. Ogechi Akalonu who called for concerted effort for promoting exclusive breastfeeding emphasized the need to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

She identified optimal breastfeeding as the key to the survival of any child saying that it should be commenced from labour room.

“We are celebrating women, breast milk. The gift of God, liquid love. We are celebrating a well-nourished child. This week we celebrate goodness of God. You know, giving us this free gift of breast milk that we can use to nourish and nurture new born, children under two years and beyond. To tell people the need to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

“Optimal breastfeeding is very key to the survival of any child, and we start that optimal breastfeeding from the labour room. When a woman delivers, you need to initiate breastfeeding within an hour. Then you continue with only breast milk, no water for the first six months in breastfeeding. Only breast milk, not any milk that is what the child needs.

“It has vitamins and minerals and other materials that can also enhance life and fight diseases. It has something that we call antibodies, that help us fight infection. it had so many things that can make the baby to be nourished and develop” she said.

Chairman of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, FCT chapter, Maj. Edith Oghenobo Chinemelem (Rtd) who identified community involvement, mobilization and education as proper ways of promoting breastfeeding among nursing mothers for a healthy society said the event was designed to mobilize communities and educate women on the importance of breastfeeding, early initiation, and complementary feeding.

“This event is part of a broader, sustained effort to reach breastfeeding mothers, raise awareness, and provide them with accurate information on optimal infant feeding practices,” she said.

Programs Assistant of the Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria CS-SUNN, Okoli Mmesoma Almond said that promoting breastfeeding should be everyone’s concern to be horned by Community Education and Support.

Noting that exclusive breastfeeding practice should be the responsibility of all and must begin from the moment of conception, Okoli said the aim of the campaign was to sensitize mothers, families, and entire communities about the life-saving and long-term benefits of breastfeeding.

“Breastfeeding is not just a mother’s business. It is everybody’s business. From family members to health workers, we all have a role to play in supporting mothers from conception through the breastfeeding journey.

“Education is key. We must ensure every mother, especially at the grassroots, receives the right information and is supported throughout her breastfeeding journey,” she said.

Shimi Ishyaku, a breastfeeding mother speaking on behalf her colleagues shared her experience with exclusive breastfeeding saying that her child hardly falls sick which had made her to encourage other women to embark on exclusive breastfeeding practice.

She also said her husband and other relatives had been very supportive having been sensitized by health workers on the need to support breastfeeding mother.

The program organized by Nutrition Society of Nigeria FCT in collaboration with Community Action for Improved Nutrition as part of World Breastfeeding Week saw breastfeeding mothers schooled properly on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding practice.