Health
DELEGATES from Medela Cares’ in Switzerland are on a three-day assessment and evaluation visit to Neo-natal Intensive Care Units (NCIU) of hospitals in Abuja, Kwara, and Lagos states, participating in its Lactation Care and Feeding Programme.
The programme is in conjunction with its partner, Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), a body which aims to improve health outcomes for women, infants and children.
Founder and President of WBFA and WHO Foundation Ambassador for Global Health Mrs. Toyin Saraki said the team’s visit was in line with WBFA’s commitment to reducen mortality rate of neonates in NICU in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3.2), ‘which focused on ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age’.
She noted that ensuring new mothers are wholly supported to breastfeed is not only critical for the health and wellbeing of the baby, but also linked to 17 of the United Nations (UN) SDGs.
Head of Global Medical Affairs and Education at Medela Cares’, Dr Nania Schärer-Hernández, said: “Being on the ground in Nigeria helped us assess lactation care … understand what is going on and what can be done to improve neonatal outcomes…”
The team also visited the NICU, Labour and Postnatal Wards to interact with mothers and healthcare workers.
Chief Executive Officer of Medela Worldwide Annette Brüls: “We are honoured to support the Wellbeing Foundation Africa. Thank you for your leadership and passion for improving health in Nigeria.”
The visit also featured presentations by Schärer-Hernández, and Sioned Hilton (Global Medical Affairs of Medela Cares), on important aspects of the project such as ‘Time-to-first expression; ‘Frequency of expression in all infants’; ‘Time to milk ‘coming in’; ‘Coming to volume’; ‘Proportion of daily feeds’, and ‘Breastfeeding rates in NICU’.
-The Nation
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Tags: Nania Schärer-Hernández NCIU WBFA
