Maternal Mortality: Nutrition Focal Person Move to Combat Anaemia through Scale-up of MMS
By: Femi Mustapha
Nutrition Focal Persons (NFPs) from the 23 Local Government Areas of Kaduna State have vowed to reduce the incidence of anemia in pregnancy in their various LGA through the Scale-Up Of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements, MMS, in the State.
They resolve to do this at the end of a two-day Multiple Micronutrients Supplements (MMS) orientation organized for them by Alive & Thrive (A&T) in Kaduna.
According to them, IFAs (Iron and Folic Acid) were no longer enough to tackle anemia and other health complications in pregnancy.
Hear Blessing Thomas, the Nutrition Focal Person for Jama’a LGA: “We are familiar with IFAs which we give to pregnant women but now we have better knowledge and a better product which is MMS.”
MMS according to her has 15 vitamins and minerals, including iron and folic acid in the recommended dosage.
“MMS has 20 years of research, providing clear evidence that MMS is more effective than IFAS in preventing adverse birth outcomes. The last two years have seen progress in MMS policy development and implementation research in most countries.”
“Now is the time to accelerate implementation and address key issues such as ensuring effective and equitable coverage and a sustainable supply of high-quality and affordable supplements
” I am going to step down the orientation to Services providers in my LGA,” She said.
Similarly Ruth Samuel, who is Nutrition Focal Person for Chikun LGA. Said her major goal now is to go back with all she has learned and create awareness in her area about the importance of MMS for pregnant women, how they will use it, and how it will help them to maintain their hemoglobin level and decrease anemia.
Speaking on the consequences of anemia Mrs. Samuel said anemia can lead to stillbirth; pre-term delivery; intrauterine growth retardation; congenital malformations; reduced immunocompetence and abnormal organ development.
To tackle anemia in pregnant women and under-five children, the Chikun Focal person said the rollout of MMS, which is efficacious, safe, cost-effective, and affordable must start with creating awareness.
Speaking in the same vein, the Nutrition Focal Person for Zaria LGA.
Mohammed Tukur said his fast task is to scale down the training to the health facilitators and also ensure that when the supplements are available, they will supply and distribute them to all the facilities and stop the utilization of IFAs.
“My take home is that I got orientation on MMS, which is multiple micronutrient supplements and I will return to my Local Government and scale down the training to the health facilitators and also ensure that when the supplements are available, we will supply it, and distribute it to all the facilities,” he said.
Addressing the Participants, the State Team Lead for Alive & Thrive, Mrs. Sarah Kwasu, expressed delight that her organization has gotten commitments from the Nutrition Focal Persons, saying Anemia’s impact on health, cognitive development, and overall productivity is a barrier that all must dismantle for the prosperity and well-being of our communities, and the Nutrition Focal person is key in achieving the mission.
Findings revealed that the advantage of Multiple micronutrient supplements is that they contain micronutrients which gives an advantage over the IFAs.
