‘Poor Nutrition Causes Low Birth Weight, Stillbirth on Infant, Children’
Ayodeji Ake
Nutritionists have explained that low birth weight, and stillbirth among others are consequences of poor maternal nutrition for infants and children, while prolonged labour, maternal mortality, and lower income, for women.
Orienting nutrition stakeholders at the Sensitization Meeting on Multiple Micronutrient Supplement (MMS), Lagos State Coordinator, Alive&Thrive, Olawunmi Ajayi, emphasized the importance of women’s diet, especially during pregnancy.
She said: “In Nigeria, women’s diets are often poor in quality and lack nutrients; deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals like – folate, iodine, iron, and zinc, are rampant. These nutritional deficiencies undermine women’s health and threaten the survival and development of their children
Maternal nutrition is critical to ensuring that women have healthy pregnancies and that children grow into healthy adults, yet evidence shows that women in low-resource settings find it difficult to meet their daily dietary requirements leading to the high proportion of Women of Reproductive Age with low minimum dietary diversity (MDD) across the nation.
“When a woman is pregnant, there is an increase in nutritional needs to meet the physiological conditions, sustain fetal growth and development, protect the health of the mother during pregnancy, and prepare her for breastfeeding. Both macro and micronutrient requirements during pregnancy differ for nonpregnant women.”
Highlighting some of the consequences of poor nutrition, she listed “low pregnancy Body Mass Index (BMI), lower income, obstructed or prolonged labour, eclampsia and pre-eclampsia and maternal mortality, for women; for infant and children – low birthweight, small-for-gestational-age, preterm birth, stillbirth, spina bifida, congenital defects, child mortality, and morbidity poor postnatal physical and cognitive growth and development.”
The Technical Advisor Inter-personal Communication Alive&Thrive, Olumide Faleke, while explaining the essence of the meeting, educated the participants about the highly rich in vitamins and minerals, MMS.
“To improve State and Local Government Area Nutrition stakeholders’ MMS programming/planning knowledge and skills respectively Help state and LGA nutrition stakeholders appreciate A&T’s MMS mandates and support as well as secure nutrition stakeholder buy-in Integrate A&T’s MMS support into the State.
“Over the past five decades, iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation has become a core component of antenatal care for pregnant women in Nigeria to address anaemia. While iron and folic acid are critical nutrients, they are not the only nutrients that pregnant women may need to support their health and the health of their children.
” Other vitamins and minerals (collectively referred to as micronutrients) – including vitamins A, B₁, B₂, B₃, B₆, B₉ (folic acid), B₁₂, C, D, E, and the minerals iron, zinc, iodine, copper, and selenium – are essential for a healthy pregnancy and fetal development. Daily intake of these micronutrients during pregnancy increases by as much as up to 50 per cent,” he said.
Nutritional Program Officer, Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr. Adekiitan Adetoke, in her submission, said the focus is to ensure the reduction of maternal mortality.
“Maternal nutrition is of great importance to the world and not Nigeria alone. This program is an intervention on MMS which helps mothers to get better pregnancy outcomes and our focus is to ensure that maternal mortality is reduced,” she said.
