AFTER CHILDBIRTH, WHAT NEXT?

By: Patience Anokye, Head of Medical Research Team

Of all the things most women desire in the world, child-bearing is a priority because only that proves their womanhood especially in Africa.

Having a child, however, is just one part of the story: ensuring the full growth of the newborn baby and helping the mother to regain her energy when both are discharged from hospital is where most new mothers get problems.

According to best practices, a lactating mother needs to eat nourishing meals with a lot of body-building foods as well as fruits and green vegetables that contain essential minerals such as iron and vitamins.

This is to build up her strength in order to be fit and also to help produce breast milk for the baby. Foods rich in iron will help to replace the blood lost during labour. Mothers who do not eat well balanced diet after delivery lose body weight and become lean over a period of prolonged lactation.

Apart from the nutrition aspect, best practices say after delivery, mothers must regularly wash their female organ with lukewarm water with edible salt added to it and must also sit on warm water. This would help prevent an offensive odour and general discharge.

Mothers who have just had a baby need sufficient sleep and rest to help keep up a good supply of breast milk. Studies have shown that it is not good for a lactating mother to lift heavy things and engage in tedious work until her womb and birth passage return to their normal state.

Moreover, it takes six or more weeks before new mothers overstretched muscles return to normal. Hence, they need postnatal exercises to help their muscles and ligaments regain their natural strength.

Nevertheless, care of the new born is also crucial. Midwives and health workers maintain that breast milk is the ideal food for the newly born baby. Breast feeding should be started the same day the baby is born.

Experience in most countries have shown that most babies thrive well and show adequate growth in the first four to six months of life on their mothers' milk.

The various nutrients in mothers' breast milk are balanced for optimum growth of the baby and also contain several substances which act in combination as defense mechanism against infection.

Nevertheless, it is also essential to keep the breast and nipples clean. For example, mothers should keep their nails clean and short and must not touch their nipples with unwashed hands or wipe them with anything like a handkerchief. This is to prevent germs from entering the baby's mouth.

Infection is one of the dangers to babies so hand-washing before handling babies and after changing napkins as well as feeding are essential.

Babies' napkins and plastic pants need to be changed as soon as they are soiled and be washed daily to avoid an unpleasant odour. When wet napkins are left on babies for too long especially under plastic pants, they could cause sore buttocks (sore buttocks begin as a reddened area).

It is good to use bibs for babies. If worn at feeding times, they keep babies' dress neat, but plastic bibs are not advisable because they can blow over to cover babies face and let them suffocate. Although an expectant mother takes pride in her baby's dresses, it is important for her to consider warmth, comfort, style and fabrics when selecting clothes for her baby.

For example, babies must be kept warm without causing undue perspiration, irritation of their skin or clothes which hinder their movement.

Babies clothing should also not interfere with their desire to wriggle and kick; because health workers are of the view that movements of babies stimulate the circulation of blood, absorption of food as well as developing the muscles in readiness for sitting, standing and walking.

Furthermore, care should be taken when handling, dressing or bathing babies. Since new born babies have weak spines, necks and muscles, mothers must always support the heads and spine of their babies properly. Most mothers unfasten the back of the dresses of young babies while they hold them in a sitting posture. Experts maintain that it is advisable to turn babies over and lay them face down on the lap when dressing them.

The care of babies' skin is equally important. Because the texture of babies' skin are so fine, they are easily irritated, and it is better to use good and quality baby soaps, creams and powders for them to prevent irritation of their skin.

Apart from all the care that needs to be given babies in the house it is also very important for mothers to seek medical advice from the nearest hospitals on the type of foods to give the babies as they grow.

Mothers should also send their babies to medical centres for the treatment and dressing of their cords and for immunization against diseases.

My name is Patience Anokye, a health practitioner, and by the time I leave this world, it must be better than I found it.