Group Seeks Review Of Maternity Leave

A non-governmental organisation, Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) has said, the latest Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), conducted in 2018 had revealed that 21 per cent of under-five children in Benue State are stunted, 23 per cent underweight, while 13.6 per cent are wasted as a result of malnutrition.

The  co-chairman steering committee CS-SUNN, Aji Robinson who disclosed this during a media round table held in Makurdi the Benue State capital advocated for 1000 days exclusive breastfeeding for children and a review of maternity leave for lactating mothers to enable them to exclusively breastfeed their babies.

According to her, “creating an enabling environment for maternity protection and entitlements for lactating mothers such as six-month paid maternity leave, will play a key role in fostering and enhancing breastfeeding practices”

She lamented a situation where the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition has been domesticated in Benue since 2021 to provide a multi-sectoral approach to tackle problem of malnutrition among women and children, but is yet to be approved by the state government.

The nutrition experts enumerated some of the outcome associated with non-exclusive breastfeeding to include stunt growth, poor brain and cognitive development.

According to her, “increased investments in nutrition remains critical for promoting sustainable development, economic prosperity, and the overall well-being of Nigerians.

She said, malnutrition has remained a public health concern in Nigeria and is a significant cause of death, with stunting, in particular, linked to adverse outcomes such as poor brain and cognitive development, a loss of two-three years of schooling, poor school performance and diminished productivity in adulthood.

Earlier, the state coordinator CS-SUNN, Rachel Ityonzughul called on all mothers to imbibe the culture of exclusive breastfeeding for their children during the first six months of life adding that it should be sustained alongside appropriate complementary feeding until two years of age.