The coordinator, office of the First Lady, Akwa Ibom, Lady Helen Eno Obareki, has called on managements of Primary Healthcare centers, Traditional Birth Attendants, and wives of Local Government Chairmen to sensitize mothers on the importance of birth registration in their LGAs.
Lady Helen who made the call during the Empowerment Programme For Multiple Birth Families, under the Maternal and Child Healthcare thematic area of the Golden Initiative For All (GIFA) yesterday, emphasized the significance of registering the birth of newborn babies, decrying a situation where many children in the state lack birth certificates.
“It is important that the birth of babies is documented. My staff gave me a list of 330 babies but when I insisted that all of the babies should have their birth certificates, that number reduced drastically.
“Sensitize mothers on the need to register the birth of their children, irrespective of where the delivery takes place. Even when they give birth at home or at the Traditional Birth Attendant’s place, they should endeavour to get their children registered.
While thanking Governor Umo Eno for his constant support For GIFA, Lady Obareki who is the Chairman of the GIFA Board of Trustees, congratulated the families on the safe delivery of their twins, triplets, and quadruplets.
Lady Helen, in the company of female stakeholders in the state, distributed care packages to families of multiple birth children to help ameliorate the burden of raising the children.
Earlier in her welcome address, the Special Assistant to the Governor on General Duties, Mrs. Anne Abraham, highlighted the empowerment programme for multiple birth families as a vital extension of the Maternal and Child Healthcare component of the Golden Initiative for All, GIFA.
Mrs. Abraham explained that the programme which specifically targets families with babies aged 0–3 months, was also designed to support fathers who lost their spouses during childbirth commending stakeholders and Development partners for their commitment to GIFA vision.
The Akwa Ibom State Nutrition Officer, Dr. Idongesit Umoh, who delivered a health talk at the event, emphasized the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, described breast milk as the perfect first food for infants, vital for brain development, and offering natural family planning benefits.
According to her, breast milk should be given exclusively for the first six months before introducing complementary foods, while advocating for a six-month paid maternity leave policy to support nursing mothers, urging mothers to consume a balanced diet and breastfeed their babies a minimum of 8 times daily and on demand.
In their separate goodwill messages, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare Mrs. Inibehe Silas, the Executive Secretary of the Akwa Ibom State Primary Healthcare Agency, Dr. Eno Attah, and the Chairman House Committee on Women Affairs/ Member representing Ikot Abasi/Eastern Obolo State Constituency in the State Assembly, Hon. Selina Ukpato, who all paid glowing tributes to the memory of Pastor Patience Umo Eno who laid the foundation for the GIFA multiple birth programme and Lady Helen Obareki for sustaining the impactful legacy of her mother.
Highpoint of the event was the presentation of packages for the care of multiple birth children by the Coordinator of the Office of the First Lady, at a ceremony attended by Female Stakeholders in the State.
Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, a mother of Quadruplets, Mrs Nseobong Uloh
thanked the Coordinator, Lady Helen Eno Obareki for the love and support extended to multiple birth families, which will significantly ease the challenges they face.