FEMM Launches App to Improve Maternal Health

Rebecca Ejifoma

For the Health of Women! Dr. Asogwa (right) flanked by team members

The Fertility Education and Medical Management (FEMM) Health has launched an app designed to provide an interactive platform for women to get personalised daily feedback to achieve their health and fertility goals.

The app is created to support and enhance women’s health globally. It provides a means for women to learn about their bodies, and achieve health and reproductive goals via the platform’s personalised insights. The app uses our proprietary algorithm to flag any potential issues seen in a woman's cycle. We also provide a platform for women to reach a FEMM educator or doctor when an issue is flagged.

“It is not just another period predictor. We believe a woman’s body is more than her period and know that simply predicting periods does not help women to understand their bodies and manage their health,” as disclosed in a media chat.

According to FEMM Teacher and Medical Practitioner, Dr. Nkechi Asogwa, women can track their period, monitor ovulation and other physical and emotional observations on this platform in order to understand their hormonal changes and health patterns.

“The app allows women to accomplish goals such as tracking their health, and achieving or avoiding pregnancy. It also provides additional support for women to ask a FEMM health coach questions, or get link to a FEMM trained doctor,” she expressed.
Its quest is to support more women globally, the app is now available in Android for English and Spanish speakers.

To further pursue its course and commitment to women’s health, science and research, FEMM partners the Reproductive Health Research Institute (RHRI). “RHRI conducts ongoing peer-reviewed research and study, and trains medical providers in the latest research and evidence-based protocols for the diagnosis and treatment of women’s health,” Asogwa expressed.

Mothers Have no Excuse not to Embrace Exclusive Breastfeeding

Ekoemeye breastfeeding her baby girl

The major reasons nursing mothers in Nigeria give for not embracing exclusive breastfeeding include having no breast milk, weakness while breastfeeding and lack of time among others.  Rebecca Ejifoma spoke to nursing mothers and experts, and writes on the best position and duration for breastfeeding as well as other benefits to mother and child. Excerpts:

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO), in a new report, observed that no country in the world fully meets recommended standards for breastfeeding; hence, introduction of it’s Breastfeeding Collective, a new initiative to increase global breastfeeding rates.

The two global health bodies said that babies and mothers worldwide have been failed by lack of investment in breastfeeding, according to facts released on World Breastfeeding Day 2017. They argued that exclusive breastfeeding will help all countries achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 3 and 4.

The Global Breastfeeding Scorecard that evaluated 194 nations found that only 40 per cent of children younger than six months are breastfed exclusively (given nothing but breastmilk) and only 23 countries have exclusive breastfeeding rates above 60 per cent, excluding Nigeria.

According to research, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months can reduce child deaths by at least 800,000 each year, almost 15% of the total 6.3 million annual child deaths in Nigeria. Unfortunately, babies – who are not breastfed – are particularly vulnerable to the leading killers of small children and are more likely to die from pneumonia and diarrhea, compared to babies who are exclusively breastfed.

Exclusive breastfeeding rates in some states 
In Nigeria today, 17 per cent of nursing mothers give their children exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, while only 11 per cent breastfeed exclusively beyond the sixth month. States like Abia have at least 36% of mothers exclusively breastfeed their babies. Lagos State is 28 per cent; Sokoto state is 8%; Calabar is 22.9%; Edo is 20%; In Ile-Ife, Oyo State, Nigeria, a relatively high rate of exclusive breastfeeding of 61% was reported. However, in Igbo- Ora, Oyo State only 7.5% of them knew any mother who was practicing exclusive breastfeeding.

It was in line with this that several organisations and health experts took to the  streets to demand for exclusive breastfeeding during the World Breastfeeding Week 2017, enlightening mothers that breastfeeding  is the first immunisation of new babies and an academic amplifier to babies breastfed exclusively for six months and complementarily for two years. 

Nursing mothers speak out 

Adesanya breastfeeding her son

Five nursing mothers spoke to this reporter about reasons they could not breastfeed exclusively for at least six months. For Toyin Adesanya, 32, residing at Magodo in Lagos her main reason for being unable to breastfeed exclusively for at least six months is that her breast milk does not flow despite her drinking enough water.

Adesanya’s first child is two years old and the second is two weeks old. She started the baby off with infant formula and water plus breast milk from day one.

“I breastfed my first child – a girl – exclusive for two months only and weaned her at one year and two months. For my new baby – a boy – he wasn’t getting satisfaction from my breast milk at all. He was always crying, so I had to switch to infant formula while I continued breastfeeding as complement,” she expressed.

Man Arrested for Attempting to Slaughter Toddler

Rebecca Ejifoma
The Police in Lagos has arrested Mr. Salisu Abdulahi for allegedly attempting to slaughter a four year old girl in Lagos.

The suspect was alleged to have abducted the toddler at White Sand area of Ebute Meta while she was playing with her mates in an open field.

It was gathered that the suspect, a Suya seller, had taken the victim to a planned area where he had attempted to slaughter her with a knife.

Bit unfortunately for him, he met his water loo when a good Samaritan sighted his suspicious moves and approached the scene.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who confirmed the incident to newsmen yesterday August 30, said that the Good Samaritan rescued the victim from the wicked claws of the suspect.

He added: “In an attempt to disarm the suspect, the rescuer sustained minor injury on his hand.”

According to him, the suspect was subsequently handed over to the Police at Denton Police Station, Oyingbo. “But the Good Samaritan has since been treated and discharged.”

"Police investigation revealed that the suspect abducted the little girl where she was playing with her friends with the sole intension of slaughtering her. It is a clear case of kidnap and attempted murder,” Owoseni declared.

Use of Children as ‘Human Bombs’ Rising in North East Nigeria

…Young girls are most frequent victims

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is extremely concerned about an appalling increase in the cruel and calculated use of children, especially girls, as ‘human bombs’ in northeast Nigeria. Children have been used repeatedly in this way over the last few years and so far this year, the number of children used is already four times higher than it was for all of last year.

Since 1 January this year, 83 children have been used as ‘human bombs’; 55 were girls, most often under age 15; 27 were boys, and one was a baby strapped to a girl.

The use of children in this way is an atrocity.

Children used as ‘human bombs’ are, above all, victims, not perpetrators.

The armed group commonly known as Boko Haram has sometimes, but not always, claimed responsibility for these attacks, which target the civilian population.

UNICEF Saddened over Denial of Baquer Namazi’s Appeal of 10-year Prison Sentence

The whole UNICEF family is deeply saddened to learn that the appeal of the 10-year prison sentence of Baquer Namazi, our respected former colleague, has been denied.

“Mr. Namazi is 81 years old and in increasingly poor health. He has now been detained in Iran for more than 18 months. After many years dedicated to serving the world’s most disadvantaged children, he deserves to be at home in the care of his family," UNICEF expressed.

“On behalf of his friends and former colleagues around the world, UNICEF urges the government of Iran to release Mr. Namazi on humanitarian – and compassionate – grounds.

More than 180 million people lack basic drinking water in countries ravaged by conflict or unrest - UNICEF

In line with the World Water Week 2017, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that more than 180 million people do not have access to basic drinking water in countries affected by conflict, violence and instability around the world.

“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege,” UNICEF’s Global Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Sanjay Wijesekera, has said. ”In countries beset by violence, displacement, conflict and instability, children’s most basic means of survival – water – must be a priority.”

As disclosed in a press release, UNICEF has it that people living in fragile situations are four times more likely to lack basic drinking water than populations in non-fragile situations, according to a recent UNICEF and World Health Organisation analysis. Of the estimated 484 million people living in fragile situations in 2015, 183 million lacked basic drinking water services.

In Yemen, a country reeling from the impact of over two years of conflict, water supply networks that serve the country’s largest cities are at imminent risk of collapse due to war-inflicted damage and disrepair. Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from regular access to water and sanitation.

Lagos DSVRT, Traditional Rulers Walk against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Rebecca Ejifoma

Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), in collaboration with two Paramount Rulers, Oba Sefiu Olatunji Adewale, Olu of Epe and Oba Kamorudeen Ishola Animashaun, Olaoja of Epe, participated in an advocacy walk to end Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Epe.

Speaking at the occasion, the traditional rulers commended the present administration for its efforts to eradicate sexual and gender-based violence in Lagos through the DSVRT.

The Obas promised to give all the necessary support to ensure that not only Epe but also Lagos State is free from all sorts of domestic violence, adding that they will also educate the people in their domain to refrain from any acts of domestic violence.