From Abubakar Sadiq, Zaria The Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC) working under Faith and Cultural Champion project has intensified advocacy...
From Abubakar Sadiq, Zaria
The Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC) working under Faith and Cultural Champion project has intensified advocacy on maternal health and birth spacing across six local government areas of Kaduna State.
This was to improve the wellbeing of women and children.
Speaking to our Correspondant shortly after a one-day workshop with journalists in Kaduna, Hayatu Nurayn Ashafa, IMC co-founder said the sole aim was encouraging women to attend antenatal care and give birth in hospitals for safer delivery and proper medical attention.
According to him, the advocacy also focuses on promoting healthy birth spacing to safeguard the health of both mothers and babies.
“We are advocating for women to give birth in hospitals and also imbibe the culture of going for antenatal care for their wellbeing and proper check-up of the baby,” the co-founder said.
Ashafa further explained that IMC was not promoting family planning in the conventional sense, but encouraging child spacing to allow mothers adequate recovery time and ensure babies are properly breastfed before another pregnancy.
He noted that medical experts recommend at least one and a half to two years of breastfeeding before another childbirth, stressing that yearly childbirth poses health risks to both mothers and children.
He said both the IMC and FCC identified spousal communication as a key aspect of the campaign, urging husbands and wives to openly discuss family and health issues without unnecessary interference from third parties.
“There is need for husbands to give women the opportunity to express their views on issues that directly affect them so there can be mutual understanding in the home,” Ashafa stated.
He further revealed that the project had been implemented for six months, during which surveys showed that many community members already understood the importance of antenatal care, hospital delivery and birth spacing.
However, the co-founder said the major challenge remained translating awareness into actual practice.
To address this, Ashafa said the IMC under Faith and Cultural Champion project engages media practitioners to help amplify the message and encourage more women to seek medical care during pregnancy and childbirth.
According to him the advocacy project was being implemented in six local government areas of Kaduna State, including Jema’a, Kubau, Kauru, Giwa, Zaria and Chikun.
He added that the initiative is being executed in collaboration with 23 civil society organisations operating under a consortium arrangement.
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