Tackling nutritional gap in Kilifi County

As it has been the norm since she was expecting, a motivational session about the importance of mothers breastfeeding their babies is going on as she keenly listens to learn something new.

Anzazi is among the mothers who have exclusively breastfed their children for 6 consecutive months before introducing solid food, according to the health workers' instructions.

She emphasises the importance of exclusively breastfeeding and how it has helped her child.

“Immediately I gave birth I started breastfeeding my baby because before you are discharged from hospital the nurses ensure that the child is able to latch and breastfeed. I did so exclusively for 6 months without giving her any food, I was following the nurse's advice and also feared if I did my baby would become sick," she says.

Sitting next to her is Leah Chiriba whose almost 11 months boy is playful in her mother’s lap breastfeeding.

She says that when she gave birth she faced a lot of challenges with getting food even for herself and she almost contemplated giving porridge to her son because she was crying every time and people told her it was hunger that made the baby cry.

“I almost went to my neighbour to ask for food for my baby, but I remembered the teachings at the hospital and decided to breastfeed him, you can see how healthy he is,” she boastfully adds.

Chiriba is following the conversation and at times distracted to play with her son on the laps.

Today nurse Anastasia Juma of Mbudzi Dispensary is taking them through the lessons of the importance of breastfeeding.

Juma says most mothers do not adhere to 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding due to work and start giving them solid food after going back to work.

She adds that they are using Community Health Promoters to create awareness on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding to reduce the cases of malnutrition among children in Kilifi County.

Insisting on the importance of the first 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding of a child, nurse Anastasia Juma wants mothers to embrace the practice.

Kilifi County is leading with the percentage of exclusively breastfed babies for the first 2 days after birth in the Coast Region with 89.2 percent followed by Kwale and Lamu County respectively.

Mama Zeinab Thuva famously known as Mama Maglasi has been working as a Community Health Promoter for more than 20 years in Kilifi County.

She says with Kilifi witnessing teenage pregnancies, most young mothers are not willing to breastfeed their babies when they go back to work or school.

This leads to babies’ being introduced to other foods at an early stage even before the age of 6 months hence at times leading to malnutrition.

“Sometimes you find a mother is pregnant even before the baby is 6 months old, so the mother is in a dilemma whether to continue to breastfeed or not. However, we sensitize them on these issues in order for them to continue breastfeeding the babies,” she explains.

Thuva also blamed the lack of support from men whose wives are pregnant and protested that pregnant mothers have complained to her that some men don’t even bring food home for their wives.

She cited poverty and culture as reasons as to why some mothers complain they are unable to exclusively breastfeed which leads to malnutrition among children.

According to the 2022 Kenya Demographic Health Survey, Kilifi County has a stunting prevalence of 37 per cent followed by West Pokot and Samburu counties with 34 per cent and 31 per cent respectively.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) refers to stunting as the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median.

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) discloses that male children have more cases of stunting than female children, while rural areas are more affected than urban areas.

Ken Miriti is a health coordinator on reproductive health in Kilifi and says the county is already putting plans on awareness on the importance of breastfeeding.

He also added that they are already adopting a policy of making sure employers are incorporating mothers' rooms in their place of work to enable mothers to breastfeed when at work.

Even though he says it proves to be a challenge as most employers say they will incur additional costs to come up and maintain the rooms, he insists the journey towards achieving this has just started.