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Tag: babies

  • Breast feeding crucial to babies’ growth, says expert

    Breast feeding crucial to babies’ growth, says expert

    Nursing and expectant mothers have been enjoined to breast feed their babies exclusively for the first six months to protect them from childhood diseases, such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and ear infections.

    This, according to the Project Coordinator for Colostrum International, a non governmental organisation, Dr Bunmi Ogundimu, will ensure the babies have sharp brains and healthy bodies.

    Mrs Ogundimu, who spoke on a breast feeding project for the World Breast Feeding Week with the theme: Close to mother, said breast feeding decreased from 48 per cent in 2006 to 17 per cent last year.

    “The contributory factors are ignorance, schedule of working class mothers and some nursing mothers’ resolve to keep their breast in shape,” she added.

    “The drop in breast feeding may be having adverse effects on the infant mortality ratio of 108 per 100,000 births. Practical parenting starts with taking vital decisions on behalf of the baby to ensure it gets the required nutrients for growth. Babies should be breast fed until they are two years old,” she added.

    She said breast feeding was one of the practical ways of parenting as social evolution through child care begins with it.

    Dr. Ogundimu said breast milk was produced to meet specific nutrients need of the baby at any particular time.

    She said nursing mothers should get more than four months of maternity leave, stressing that many women have lost their jobs because they chose to have babies.

    “The moment some employers hear a woman wants to have a baby. They simply lay her off,” she added.

    She said: “Women should not deny their babies colostrum, which is the first breast milk women produce after childbirth. Colostrum helps babies fight diseases and clears their bowel. No one drop of it should be allowed to waste. Colostrum quantity is between five and 10 millilitres and it is yellowish. It is called ‘witch milk’ in Yoruba because it’s a powerful substance, which is why they throw it away out of ignorance,” she said.

    Mrs Ogundimu said the Child Rearing Bill (CRB) which was proposed to the Lagos State House of Assembly is to support breast feeding mothers.

    She said her organisation ws in need of sponsors to continue with baby programmes to enlighten the public on the benefits of breast feeding.

    There will be award presentation on August 6 for people who have shown they received quality care during childhood, Mrs Ogundimu said.

     

  • Babies making babies

    As the controversy over the law on underage marriage rages on in the country, different sides have taken stands on the sensitive issue, with none ready to shift ground.

    Besides the social, cultural and legal aspects of this controversial law, the area that those who don’t see anything wrong in children getting married and having babies, need to consider seriously is the health and medical implications. Perhaps, they need to take a trip to the nearest VVF centre in the country. For the uninformed, these centres are places where victims of Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) and Recto Vaginal Fistula are treated and rehabilitated. VVF is a devastating medical condition characterized by an abnormal opening between the vagina and the urinary bladder that results from unrelieved prolonged obstructed labour, usually caused by an underdeveloped pelvic girdle.

    In most cases, the girl’s injured pelvic tissue breaks down, leaving a hole or fistula between the bladder and vagina which results in continuous leaking of urine and or faeces. In many cases, these victims, due to the smell they give off, are abandoned by families and friends and live in isolation, ostracized from the rest of society.

    VVF is a negative fallout of early marriages and child pregnancies.

    A colleague of mine who did a story on this serious life-threatening medical condition some years ago visited a few of the centres while researching the story. He came back with tales of pain, misery and human suffering beyond belief. He said most of the girls at the centre were condemned to living as outcasts in their society as they had been rejected and abandoned by their families and friends ‘including the husbands who put them in their miserable condition in the first place.’ What he saw, he stated made him weep. Now this my colleague is a hardened, tough-as-nails journalist who has seen a lot in the course of his work and is not easily moved. So for him to react in such a manner shows the extent of the horrible condition in which these poor girls find themselves.

    One phrase readily comes to mind in this matter and which is: ‘You can’t cheat nature’. Nature knows best and that is why it takes its time to prepare a female’s body for the arduous role it has been created for- that of ‘replenisher of the species’. It’s a woman’s role to reproduce so that the world will always be filled with people. Note that I used the term ‘woman’ and not child.

    If nature had intended children to have babies, their bodies would have been fully formed from birth or at an early age say 8 or 10. But you don’t have to be a medical doctor to know that at the age of 10, a girl child’s body is still growing. At this stage, her reproductive organs are not yet developed enough to cope with the rigors of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood which every woman who has undergone the experience will tell you is ‘no child’s play,’ or a picnic.

    Even animals and plants respect this salient law of nature. You don’t see a baby goat mating and giving birth. The same with chickens, dogs, cats, birds and other members of the animal kingdom. Their young are allowed to mature first before reproducing. Yet humans who are superior to beasts in the jungle, always do everything to contravene nature’s laws, with disastrous consequences.

    Some men, knowing fully well the terrible consequences of ‘babies having babies’ still derive joy in marrying children as young as their great-grand children’s age. They hide under the cloak of religion, culture and societal norms to perpetuate this inhuman act on these vulnerable children. The result of this practice which is more widespread in the country than you can imagine, is there for all to see.

    Recently, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, disclosed that Nigeria has the highest incidences of VVF in the world with an estimated 400,000 to 800,000 cases with 20,000 new cases added each year.

    She stated that VVF and Rector Vaginal Fistula are serious health problems in the developing world, including Nigeria where it contributes greatly to the country’s unacceptable high maternal mortality.

    This is a huge number of our youngsters whose lives have been truncated at an early age due to no fault of theirs but being born in a society where a female is a ‘disposable commodity.’ She can be married off at 11 and divorced or abandoned at 14 when VVF strikes and no-one cares. We live in a truly evil society.

    There is one question Nigerians need to ask our ‘distinguished’ Senators, most of whom are fathers and grandfathers- will any of them (including unrepentant child bride practitioners

    Iike Senator Yerima) give out their 13 year old child in marriage to a 70 year-old Papa? I bet the answer is a resounding No! Many of them with school age children have their kids schooling abroad in some of the best schools in the world. Yet due to perverse desires, selfishness and crass ignorance, refuse to protect the weak and helpless in the society.

    Renouncing this obnoxious law so as to protect our young girls against predatory older men who destroy their lives in the name of early marriages, has nothing to do with religion as no religion condones human misery in any form. It is about justice, human rights and the well-being of our vulnerable children who need to be educated and nurtured to grow up as responsible adults. Not groomed to be a senile, old man’s plaything and sex object!

  • Madam Rufa’i’s unlucky babies

    Madam Rufa’i’s unlucky babies

    Nigerians are by now, only too familiar with the spectacle of highly placed public officers helplessly wringing their hands in feigned supplication to an absentee god when confronted with the problems they were hired to fix. Last month, Nigerians were treated to another spectacle by the number one steward in the education ministry – Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai. She told journalists after monitoring the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) only 520,000 candidates stood the chance of gaining admission into any tertiary institution out of the 1.7 milion candidates who sat for the examination.

    Here is what the media quoted her to have said: “The major challenge is a country like Nigeria having 1.7 million sitting for examination. The space we have is 520,000 for federal, states, private universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. If one million passed, what are we going to do with the rest 500,000? We will not expand the carrying capacity without expanding the facilities”.

    Not done, she asked: “What are we going to do with the large number of students out there? I feel the pain. Mr. President is very much concerned. If you have students that have passed examination and they cannot have access, you can imagine their thought in the long run.”

    If the ministerial prerogative to lapse into lamentation over problems, which is ordinarily deemed to be within the capacity of the administration she represents to solve is accepted, to present the problem as something of a fresh challenge is however a different call – a tough one to accept. The problems are of course hardly new. What they require are fresh and imaginative thinking the likes of which the minister and the top guns in her ministry seems ever so unwilling – or rather ill-equipped – to undertake.

    The administration obviously believes in the centrality of “carrying capacity” to the resolution of the problem. A measure of this line of thought is the dramatic step of opening nine new universities even when the older federally owned universities could do with better funding. It may partly explain the minister’s call for opening of more access – through perhaps the establishment of more private tertiary institutions.

    Is the issue really one of “carrying capacity”? Or put in another way, is the crisis simply one of numbers that can be solved merely by doubling or quadrupling the existing carrying capacity of our tertiary institutions?

    I have no doubts in my mind that the current capacity needs to be expanded to ease the problem of admissions. I am aware that there are those who will argue that even a mere thousand taken out the vicious cycle of despair is worth the consideration. It is however a different matter to suggest that the boosting of the combined investments of federal, states and indeed the private sector would at some point satisfy the demand for tertiary education without a fundamental shift in our educational paradigm and a corresponding shift in national values and priorities.

    My position is of course that our concerns with tertiary education has become somewhat misplaced. Now, the quest for a university or polytechnic is certainly legitimate. The reality however is that not everyone that desires it would get one. This is true of developed as well as developing countries. What the developed countries have done is find a balance between the quest for learning – which is life-long, with the need to fit into the labour market.

    Today, part of the problem is what tertiary education is supposed to offer its recipient. Thirty years ago, such issues was regarded as irrelevant. Access to higher education what somewhat given and indeed, came close to a ‘right’ just as the debate about what it is supposed to offer would have been academic. Today, I will wager that anyone would argue that tertiary education, as against basic education, is a ‘right’ under current realities. Secondly, only a few entertain any illusions that their quest for tertiary education is driven by any other factor aside availing opportunities to corner available jobs.

    That, obviously has great implications for the educational sector as a whole; now, this is not only in the context of the state of youth unemployment, but also in the light of the emerging skills gap.

    The issue is – and this is generally accepted that three out of possibly five eligible youths are unemployed. A sizeable proportion of these are holders of college degrees and diplomas. The other component of the troubling equation is their lack of relevant skills and by this I do not mean the meaningless jibe about our graduates being unemployable, but the absence of identifiable, competitive skills needed in the services and the industrial sector. The big irony is that the existence of this large “unemployable pool” has rather than diminish the appetite for higher education seems to have fuelled it.

    The issue clearly isn’t just about expanding the opportunities for tertiary education but to expand and upgrade alternative opportunities available to youths to develop themselves. Part of the consequences of the deplorable state of things is situation where you find the Togolese and other ECOWAS nationals as artisans and technicians taking over our services sector, while their Nigerian counterpart, ever so ill-equipped hang out in search of a job.

    Time it seems to get back the craft schools – the veritable institutions for training artisans and craftsmen. Time to go back to the era where our artisans are not only graded but are paid wages commensurate to their certification. We need to return to the basics of dignity in labour and due reward for honest work.

    Now, I get amused at the suggestion that the fundamentals of the current crisis can be remedied by the introduction of the so-called entrepreneurial studies at our higher institutions. I certainly agree that a good knowledge of entrepreneurship principles will do no harm in the circumstances. But then, they represent mere placebos as against the cure drugs. The key is to make the vocational training option accessible, attractive and to align it with the demands of industry. This is what like Lagos, Ekiti and perhaps Kano are doing by collaborating with some world-class companies to ensure transfer of skills to their youths. What I have in mind is for the educational ministry to champion the effort.

  • South African women drinking to harm their unborn babies

    PREGNANT women in one of South Africa’s poorest areas are drinking heavily to deliberately harm their unborn babies in order to claim higher welfare payments.

    There has been a spike in the number of babies born with disabilities in the country’s Eastern Cape, where crime and unemployment are widespread and newborn babies represent a form of income for mothers.

    Women who drink heavily during their pregnancy run a much greater risk of giving birth to children with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

    Children with this condition are born with characteristic physical and mental defects, including short stature, and small head and brain, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    There is no cure for FASD and treatment is focused on mental health and medical services to manage the resulting lifelong disabilities that include learning difficulties, behavioural problems, language, delayed social or motor skills, impaired memory and attention deficits.

    A major problem is the prevalence of illegal drinking houses called shebeens, where homemade, highly addictive and damaging alcohol called kah-kah is sold.

    Kah-kah is a milky brown liquid and while its exact ingredients are unknown police have found batches made from yeast, water and battery acid.

    “If I don’t drink this, I’m like someone who is sick,” one mother said, swigging from a transparent bottle containing kah-kah. “I can’t sleep, and I can’t think straight but when I have this then I am better and I can do anything.”

    She said she drank about “five or six bottles a day” and that this started from “about nine o’clock” in the morning.

    According to Sky News, while police frequently raid shebeens and shut them down, new shebeens open up just as quickly.

  • Herbs and ‘holy’ water babies

    Herbs and ‘holy’ water babies

    Despite recent stepped up campaigns against herbal homes, many expectant mothers prefer going there and to churches to deliver their babies. Taiwo Abiodun investigates

     

    Mrs. Sola Segun [not her real name] is based in Akure, Ondo State. She had been married for over 30years without a child. Two years ago at 56, her body chemistry changed. She complained of fever and dizziness; her legs got swollen and she began to exhibit symptoms akin to that of an expectant mother. She was advised to go to hospital for pregnancy test. She decided to. The result of the test turned positive: she was indeed pregnant!

    The doctor told her that at her advanced age, there was no way she could deliver the pregnancy unaided because age was no longer on her side. She was advised to get prepared for a Caesarean operation which would cost her some ransom. Her response to that was “I reject it in Jesus name.’’ Immediately, she stopped going to the hospital for pre-natal care and headed for an herbal and maternity home where she was periodically given a cocktail of herbs. In the ninth month, she was delivered of a baby girl. With her face beaming with joy she said, “I am hoping to have another one again and would not go to the hospital.’’

    Mrs. Segun is a level 14 officer in the Ministry of Education, and a headmistress in one of the primary schools in Akure.

    Asked why she shunned the hospital to deliver her baby, she said “I am afraid of surgery and I am not sure what would happen after.” She said she is at home with herbs than subject herself to a doctor’s scalpel.

    Madam Stella James [not her real name] is a devoted Christian. She married late and at 45 she conceived but was advised not to go to the hospital or else she would be opened up for caesarean operation. She did not need much persuasion to shun the hospital because according to her, “When I was looking for the fruit of the womb I visited several hospitals many times but got no positive result until I came to this Christ Apostolic Church where God answered my prayer. It is holy water and anointing oil that I used. I was told that my problem was more spiritual and that was why I delivered my baby here too and God has been kind to me. I don’t care what people would say, this is where I had my two children and I have not gone to the hospital since.”

    The stories of Mrs James and Segun are typical of many today. Many expectant mothers prefer to visit herbal maternity homes or churches to have their babies irrespective of the hygienic condition of the environment.

    A visit to some of the labour rooms in these churches and herbal homes show how indecent and unhygienic they are for newly born babies.

    Growing patronage of herbal homes

    At Aanuolapo Trado Medical Centre and Maternity Home, Abule – Iroko, Ogun State, which is run by ‘Dr’ Rasaq Ibrahim, the scent of herbs wafted through the air. Placed on wooden shelves are bottles and plastic jars filled with both liquid and powdery substances and concoctions. Local clay pots were on fire steaming, cooking some of the herbs. Pointing at each bottle on the shelve in his consulting room, Ibrahim explained the functions of each ‘drug’ to the curious reporter.

    Pointing to one of the containers he said, “This one is blood tonic, the other one is for pain relief while the next to this one is an antidote for body itching. We use all these for expectant mothers and it also depends on their complaints, He was beaming with satisfaction and confidence.

    Inside the consultation room is a bed where he examines his clients , “In fact, I can read and interpret the result or what the scan says, ’’ he said and to authenticate his words he brought out a scan result of one of the patients, glanced at it and said “This scan is normal, the baby’s head is upside down, all these are important when a baby is about seven months old in the mother’s belly,” he lectured the reporter.

    Aanuolapo Trado Medical Centre, which he heads, is a traditional maternity and healing home where the sick and expectant mothers attend and are delivered of their babies. According to him, “I will listen to their complaints and if there is need to give them herbs I will and if it is powdery concoctions [agunmu] I will also do so. I don’t give injection at all.” As is the practise in orthodox hospitals, before any client is attended to he/she must purchase a card. He boasts, “I started doing this job over 25 years ago and since then I have no cause to regret because my clients deliver with ease and without any problem.’’

    He added, “We don’t operate on pregnant women. When the baby is not in normal position we know the herbs or powdery herbal substance to give the mother for the baby to make it turn to the right way but if it is the orthodox (doctors) they will quickly bring out their scalpel and open up the patient. We have different types for example, if it is to swallow, or liquid form or again local soap for bathing depending on the condition of the client.’’

    He claimed that he is a trained herbal medicine practitioner, “I have my licence to practise. The Lagos State government used to train us and we attend workshops, seminars and other related courses in order to upgrade ourselves. I am a certified trado-medical practitioner. ’’

    He, however, admitted that there could be complicated cases of which he would not hesitate to refer such a client from his herbal homes to orthodox medical doctor or hospitals. “But the fact is that we use traditional way to deliver babies but if we observe that the case is far from being ordinary and we cannot handle, we would then refer them to the hospitals.” He said the work is symbiotic as some orthodox doctors do refer some complicated cases to them because as he called it “to guard their loins against principalities.’’

    He argued that it is not only the poor that need his services because “the rich ones also patronise herbal homes very well irrespective of their financial or social status. In fact, those who cannot come in the day would come at night in their big cars!’’

    At Mama Meta Traditional Clinic and Maternity Home, Iyana – Ipaja, wooden framed certificates decorate the wall evidencing the job the woman is doing. Pregnant women were being attended to by the MD (‘medical director’) of the clinic, Chief (Mrs.) Temilade Fayemi, who is the chief consultant. According to her, there seems to be high number of expectant mothers patronising herbal healing homes and this is due, according to her, to the efficacy of traditional medicine. She said, “I have spent 38 years on this job and I have never encountered any problem. I inherited the practice from my late father who practised as a midwife then while I also underwent training both from the Lagos State government and the World Health Organisation. In fact, I cannot count the number of patients I attend to in a week. Nigerians now appreciate and believe in the power of traditional healing homes unlike before when the case was the opposite.”

    Asked whether she delivered her own children in herbal homes, she declared, “I had my first set of triplets in the hospital while I had the rest four in my herbal home,. In fact, my apprentices acted as my midwives when I had all my children in this my clinic.’’

    Among those who delivered in Mama Meta’s clinic is Madam Elasoro Rebecca. According to her, “My father in-law was a practitioner too. All his children were delivered here.” For Mrs Alade Oluwasola [in her 40s], when she married she had delay in having children until she got to Mama Meta’s clinic. Her story about orthodox medicine is the same, that she took many drugs without any result until she turned to herbal treatment.

    For Madam Oluwasogo Agbesuyi [aka Mama Ibeji], she had her five children in the herbal home and boasted that she prefers it to any other. But for Jamiu Olawale and his wife, Moriamo who live in Abule-Iroko, Sango in Ogun State, they confessed that they patronise herbal homes because of lack of money. According to Jamiu, “We are very poor and have nobody to assist or support us so we have no choice than to go to herbal homes for medical care. You can see that I am partially blind and my wife is blind too.” Their two children were delivered in traditional herbal homes.

    ….And to churches with holy water

    Churches and spiritual homes are not left out,. For instance, the Christ Apostolic Church [CAC] believe in what they call ‘miracle water’. At Christ Apostolic Church, Ibudo Iyanu, Abule-Egba headquarters is where Evangelist [Mrs] Celena Bose Agbaje practises as a midwife to the church.

    According to the pastor in charge, Israel Afolabi, “God is performing wonders here through our midwives, ask Madam Agbaje”, he said with total conviction and full satisfaction.

    Corroborating Israel’s words, Agbaje who has spent 15years practising as a midwife in God’s Vineyard said she is spending her sixth year in Ibudo Iyanu. To convince the reporter she took him round the labour rooms where there are several rows of beds. She said, to become a midwife is not just anyhow but by calling. “It is like a pastor’s calling. When you are called you have to go to Faith Home in Ede in Osun State where you undergo spiritual training for two years and would then be qualified as a midwife, while there you are taught spiritual and medical training on how to handle cases of childbirth.’’

    According to Agbaje , “Many expectant mothers prefer going to churches to deliver their babies because of spiritual warfare the world is facing. Many are pregnant for three to five years. Some after delivery would give birth to monsters and it is through the powerful prayer here that we are able to deliver them. While evil forces reign in some women’s lives. A woman once delivered an imp. After delivery it was a still birth and she left it somewhere where she was organising to bury it but suddenly it transformed into an imp holding a mat while according to her , her head began to swell until the imp disappeared. This type of war can only be faced with spiritual warfare. If such a person had gone to the hospital she would have died!”

    According to her, the CAC believes in their powerful spiritual water called miracle water [Omi Iyanu]. The well from which the water is drawn is located by the labour rooms. She pointed at the well and declared with strong warning: “A woman must not go near the water or take from it, only men are allowed to fetch it for us. You can see kegs of water here these were brought by members and non- members of the church. We don’t go to hospital here for we believe fervently in prayers and God has been doing it for us. Last year we delivered about 93 babies. If a baby dies we pray and it will come back to life. We also use anointing oil by asking the pregnant woman to use it on her private part.”

    Asked what happens if it gets to a point where an operation is needed, she responded, “We hardly experience such here. But in a case where a woman bleeds excessively we would quickly refer her to the hospital but this is very rare! We use prayer and holy water to do whatever we are doing here. There was a time the government sent spies or detectives here to know whether we are using medical treatment but when they discovered that we did not they left us alone. There is nothing God cannot do. Those who come here are sure they will meet God here. We use faith to do anything here ’’.

    Evangelist Agbaje explained that they don’t discountenance orthodox medicine but advise their patients to go to the hospital and do scan, “If the baby is in traverse we will pray for the mother and the baby will come to the normal position. It is miracle and that is why people prefer coming to churches. When the doctor request for caesarean operation we would turn it down and pray while they would be given holy water to drink and that is all , the baby would be delivered . It is happening here.’’

    He, however, expressed displeasure at the manner churches are being treated, saying “if a woman accidentally dies in the church the police usually arrest as if we are at fault but if it happened in the hospital and from doctor’s mistake, it is buried !” He considered this unfair.

    At the Mountain of God Miracle Apata Igbala ,[ Cherubim and Seraphim] Guinness , Ikeja, a pregnant woman sleeping on a mat was pointed at as a woman who conducted the reporter round the premises said, “If you come here on Sunday you will see miracles. We deliver babies here. Our headquarter at Agege has a hospital but we believe more in miracles. What we do is legitimate and it is God who assists us. We deliver babies here and it is through the work of God.’’

    In the church compound are signs showing “Ward A’’, “Ward B’’, “Doctor’s Ward’’ etc.

    The common thread running through all the places visited show that most of these so-called herbal homes and faith clinics are dirty, while they have poor management which often result to the deaths of many of their patients as they are handled by half-baked medical practitioners.

    Investigations revealed that some of these churches and trado medical centres employ auxiliary nurses. Layi Owolabi, a medical doctor with over 30 years of working experience, agreed that there is an increase in the number of pregnant mothers turning to herbal and spiritual homes.

    He linked this to “poverty in the land as these people cannot afford to pay both the government and private hospitals fees.” Owolabi blamed the surge to herbal and spiritual homes on the fact that the two are allowed unrestricted access to the media to advertise their products while orthodox practitioners are barred from doing same.

    According to Owolabi, “I am not saying there is no miracle but our people are so gullible that when a patient is advised not to eat at certain time it is then that you will see these so-called chronic believers bringing in anointing oil from their pastors and forced it into the patient’s throat thus ignoring the doctor’s instructions. They are hoodwinked by men with sugar -coated tongues. There should be law guiding all these and it is very unfortunate that the government itself is not helping matter. To deliver a baby in the hospital you have to pay through your nose while to perform caesarean operation one needs money. And most of these clients cannot afford it so they go for the cheaper one at the risks of their lives. The state and federal government should practise the National Health Insurance Scheme[NHIS], and make medical bill affordable to all. Without this, our people will be dying in the hands of these so-called trado medical doctors and churches who cheat the gullible ones among us.’’

     

    WHO on traditional medicine 

     

    Traditional medicine (TM) refers to the knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, used in the maintenance of health and in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness. Traditional medicine covers a wide variety of therapies and practices which vary from country to country and region to region. In some countries, it is referred to as “alternative” or “complementary” medicine (CAM).

    Traditional medicine has been used for thousands of years with great contributions made by practitioners to human health, particularly as primary health care providers at the community level. TM/CAM has maintained its popularity worldwide. Since the 1990s its use has surged in many developed and developing countries.