Do you rememberer the the story I told you about baby Mariama who nearly died in my car on the way to hospital with sever malnourishment and dehydration.... well can you believe this is her and her mum Zainab now. They are doing so well and mum is managing to breast feed exclusivey now – the advice for first 6 months of a baby's life.
Unfortunately so many mums here think that their babies need water in addition to breast milk. However the water has no nutrients or antibodies, and is often not that clean, therefore causing sickness and diarrhoea. Or they think it is better to use western 'formula' milk powders, which again is very difficult to keep sterile here, not to mention expensive. The children's doctors spend a lot of their time persuading mums that 'breast is best'. So now when I'm out and about I try to encourage this with every mum I meet.
Mariama was one of those that suffered the misinformed thoughts of a young mother. She was one of the few that escaped adding to the statistic of SL having the highest infant mortality.
Praise God for the turn around in her life.
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