Breastfeeding: NASS working on 6 months maternity leave bill – Sen Oloriegbe

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, has said that his committee is currently working on a 6 months maternity leave bill to drive innovative approach that will promote breastfeeding in Nigeria

He said that the bill will also encourage and support working class women to stay at home and exclusively breastfeed their children for the first 6months of life till the child clocks 2 years.

He stated this on Tuesday at the Save the Children (SCI) Nigeria World Breastfeeding Week webinar on Innovative Strategies for Improving breastfeeding and nutrition in Nigeria.

According to him, it will also provide priotisation of breastfeeding mothers and children at health facilities and other public service delivery points.

He said they are also working to increase budget allocation with the view to increasing and supporting an highly subsidized Healthcare services to pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and their babies to provide quality maternal and new born child Healthcare in Nigeria.

He said the promotion of breastfeeding is an investment in human capital and investment in the health of the planet adding that there is need for concerted effort by government, health care providers, religious institution, traditional institutions, civil societies and the academia to promote and support breastfeeding which will have positive impact on this part of our planet.

In a related development, the Wife of Kaduna state governor and Chairperson, Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KANENAP), Kaduna, Mrs Ummi El-Rufai, explained that the Governor has established a high policy maker platform known as the Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan which includes various nutrition groups and they are working to bring to an end the scourge of malnutrition in Kaduna state and champion the treatment through the Community Infant and Young Child Initiative ( IYCI) .

“We have a lot of policies and plans put in place and through the CIYCI, we have reached out to 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state .

“We have also developed a maternal, infant and young adolescent strategic plan and jointly implemented it in both the Primary and Secondary facilities of the state.

“Our intervention on maternal and infant adolescent nutrition has reached out to 13 of the 23 LGAs of the state. 150,000 beneficiaries has been reached from July, 2019 to July, 2020,” she said.

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