Osun First Baby: Governor’s Wife Advocates Exclusive Breastfeeding
The Wife of the Osun state Governor, Mrs Sherifat Aregbesola, wants nursing mothers to exclusively breastfeed their children to ensure proper growth and healthy living.
The first lady gave the advice on Sunday during her visit to the state government’s hospital board in Osogbo, the state’s capital to welcome the First Baby of the Year.
While congratulating the parent of the baby, Mrs Aregbesola, who was represented by the wife of the Chairman Osun State Investment Company Limited, Dr Shekinat Oyebamiji, urged the new mother and other mothers to immunise their children against polio.
” Our mother, her excellency, has instructed me to admonish our women on the very importance and advantages of breast milk to children. What we call exclusive breastfeeding is giving the children breast milk only without water or supplement.
“The breast milk is natural, it is available and cheap. All the woman needs to do is to feed well and than the milk flows. When a child is breastfed, the baby has all the required nutrients that the baby needs to grow well and thrive and babies who are breastfed research has shown has a better IQ than babies who were not,” she explained.
“Another thing our mother said I should be sure to pass across is the importance of immunisations. This vaccines are readily available in all the health centres across Osun State at little or no cost. This makes children to be strong. It prevents some childhood diseases which can kill children before the age of five, so women should avail themselves and their children of this opportunity,” she stated.
On the issue of family planning, Mrs Oyebamiji pointed out that for a woman to be glowing and have the energy to take care of her home, her children must be spaced.
“A woman cannot be having children every year and expect to be healthy. So, we should in conjunction with our husbands plan our families. One can have children maybe once in three years, or two but having a child every year is detrimental to the woman’s health and family planning methods are readily available at little or no cost in all the health facilities across the state.
“I also want to say the parents should learn to take care of their wards because we believe that our children are our future. The state government has laid a solid foundation for education in this state, so we should leverage on this and train our children properly. It is actually for our future,” she appealed to the mothers.
The representative of the Governor’s wife further urged mothers to access family planning services at the primary health centres for adequate child-spacing and survival, to reduce infant mortality.
The baby of the year is a female child delivered at 12″01 a.m. to the family of Kajogbola Sunkanmi through normal delivery at the Government Hospital Board, Asubiaro. She weighed 3.15kg at birth.
Gifts were also presented to other mothers and their babies at the hospital.
