Angela Onwuzoo
To effectively tackle anaemia among pregnant women in Nigeria and its associated health consequences such as preterm birth, stunting congenital deformity, among others, stakeholders have urged the Federal and state governments to release funds for the procurement of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements.
They described MMS as an essential and effective intervention for anaemia reduction and improved pregnancy outcomes globally, stressing the need for its scale-up in the country.
According to the stakeholders, making funds available for the procurement of the supplements would reverse the country’s alarming maternal and infant mortality rates by saving the lives of pregnant women and their babies.
Multiple micronutrient supplementation has been identified by experts and studies as a low-cost and high-impact intervention that helps to reduce maternal anaemia and improve birth outcomes.
The United Nations Children’s Fund says MMS is formulated for pregnant women to provide 15 essential vitamins and minerals that are scientifically proven to benefit the overall health of both the mother and the infant.https://healthwise.punchng.com/unicef-says-multiple-micronutrient-supplementation-will-reduce-high-maternal-child-mortality/
It is recommended that mothers take these supplements throughout pregnancy to ensure that infants get adequate levels of vitamins and minerals from their mothers.
The experts spoke during a Stakeholders’ Meeting to Review the Zero Draft of the National Training Manual for Health Workers on MMS programme in Nigeria, held in Lagos recently.
The training organised by a non-governmental organisation, FHI 360 Alive & Thrive seeks to empower health workers with proper knowledge about MMS and provide them with a manual on how to distribute it to pregnant women at health facilities across states in the country.
The Alive & Thrive initiative, managed by FHI 360, is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Government of Ireland, and other donors.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that the supplements were adopted based on the 2020 World Health Organisation recommendation on antenatal care for positive pregnancy experience.
The Project Director of Alive & Thrive, Dr Victor Ogbodo, described MMS as a game changer, assuring that MMS would bridge the gap in maternal nutrition in Nigeria by improving pregnancy outcomes.https://healthwise.punchng.com/take-multiple-micronutrient-supplements-ngo-urges-pregnant-women/
Ogbodo said, “MMS offers us what we currently don’t have in our communities because if you look at the rate of anaemia in the country, especially in mothers, it is an alarming situation.
“Even with the fact that we have so many resources in the country, we still record high maternal deaths and high anaemia.
“So MMS has come to bridge a gap and that gap is to provide to the mother what she needs to ensure that she has not just a safe delivery but a healthy baby. It will be a game changer once we embrace MMS in the country.
“The first thing has been done which is the provision of the product. The second thing is to create awareness and then increase the knowledge about MMS in the country.
“We need the women to know what is available, and where they can access it and we need to make sure that it is available when they get there. We are trying to make it closer to the mother.”
The FHI 360 Country Representative noted that the manual when developed would not only equip health workers with knowledge about MMS but will also help guide them on how to support women’s access to the product.
Nigeria’s maternal mortality rate is still among the highest in the world, with an estimated 512 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is nowhere near the Sustainable Development Goals target of 70 per 100,000 live births.
Giving insight into the introduction of MMS in the country, a Director and Head of Micronutrient Deficiency Control at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, John Uruakpa, said Nigeria’s adoption of MMS was crucial in addressing maternal nutrition especially as it regards good pregnancy outcomes and tackling issues like anaemia, preterm delivery, and low birth weight.
“MMS promotes good pregnancy outcomes and reduces the risk of congenital abnormalities in children. It also helps the mothers remain healthy and at the end of the day, we have healthy babies”, he added.
The director clarified that the Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation recommended to pregnant women before MMS’ adoption would not be jettisoned but would co-exist with MMS in the hospitals.
He, however, warned that MMS and IFAS would not be used by pregnant women together, stressing that both IFAS and MMS would be available at health facilities but would be administered based on the needs of the pregnant woman.
“We are not removing IFAS. Both MMS and IFAS will co-exist in the hospitals. The essence of IFAS is to address anaemia specifically in pregnancy because the iron content in IFAS is than MMS, so both will co-exist but not be given together. It now behooves the physicians to know which one to administer to a pregnant mother based on her presentation. IFAS has not been removed because of its higher iron content. It is critical in addressing chronic anaemia in pregnancy”, he said.
Uruakpa pointed out that to make the supplements available and accessible to women at the primary healthcare centres, the government at all levels has a role to play, adding that the essence of MMS was to reverse mortality from malnutrition.
He noted, “Once the three tiers of government are procuring it, it will be available. The three ties of government have a role to play in making MMS available in hospitals. So the Federal Government will provide a seed stock and the state will also provide it. Partners have donated a lot.
“We have about three million packages donated to the country in terms of kind donation and they are being distributed now. The Federal Government is making provisions in the budget to procure. So whenever the budget is released, they will also procure. So we are also encouraging states to do the same by procuring.”https://healthwise.punchng.com/fg-distributes-1-3m-bottles-of-micronutrient-supplements-to-pregnant-women/
A Professor of Community Nutrition, Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Public Health, University of Ibadan, Folake Samuel, who expressed concern over the high rate of anaemia among pregnant women in Nigeria, said in addition to a healthy diet, MMS would go a long way in changing the narrative on maternal nutrition in Nigeria.
Looking at the issue of maternal nutrition in the country, Samuel, who is the Vice President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, said, “ Women who are pregnant and who have just given birth and are breastfeeding children have been found to have iron deficiency anaemia.
“Surveys in Nigeria show that maternal nutrition is poor. More than six out of 10 have deficiencies of various kinds. Iron deficiency anaemia in particular is serious. We have about seven in 10 being anaemic. What it means is that their everyday life is affected. To combat this, we need supplements apart from diet.”
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