Dangerous myths dispelled
Drinking tombo during pregnancy will not result in your child being born with a light skin.
This was just one of the myths tackled on Saturday at the Ongwediva Medipark by nursing sister Nangula Angula, who addressed about 200 women as part of the Safe Motherhood campaign.
“It is not true that drinking tombo during pregnancy will increase the chance of you giving birth to a light-skinned baby.
“It is not true that eating oranges during pregnancy will make you give birth to an orange baby.
“It is not true that eating mopane worms will make your child salivate too much.
“All these are not true and we must keep away from them. We must rather seek advice from our medical practitioners,” Angula said.
The event, hosted by Ongwediva Medipark, with financial assistance from Standard Bank and other business, saw northern women receiving free medical advice and screenings.
First Lady Monica Geingos was also in attendance.
“Through an initiative such as the Safe Motherhood campaign, women can learn how important it is to prepare for pregnancy,” Geingos said.
She said falling pregnant at an inconvenient time in one’s life was the main contributor to baby dumping.
“When you hear about baby dumping, your heart breaks for that little soul losing its life in that way… It is terrible and it should not happen.
We can only talk about stopping it when we have women who have access to information, access to contraceptives and access to the kind of talks we held today.
“Then if women still continue to dump babies, they must be charged. We cannot incriminate behaviour when have not provided support and choice.”
The Ongwediva Medipark managing director, Dr Tshali Iithete, said the initiative is important, and they are thinking about making it an annual event, because antenatal care is the single most important factor in determining the health of babies.
“In the past, young mothers were guided by elders, and now it is not happening anymore. Safe motherhood is a collective responsibility… many of our young mothers go through motherhood unaided.
It is also important to note that we must embrace the fact that the family unit is an important unit in our social fabric.
Therefore, husbands, fathers and partners are critical component of this unit,” he said.
ILENI NANDJATO
This was just one of the myths tackled on Saturday at the Ongwediva Medipark by nursing sister Nangula Angula, who addressed about 200 women as part of the Safe Motherhood campaign.
“It is not true that drinking tombo during pregnancy will increase the chance of you giving birth to a light-skinned baby.
“It is not true that eating oranges during pregnancy will make you give birth to an orange baby.
“It is not true that eating mopane worms will make your child salivate too much.
“All these are not true and we must keep away from them. We must rather seek advice from our medical practitioners,” Angula said.
The event, hosted by Ongwediva Medipark, with financial assistance from Standard Bank and other business, saw northern women receiving free medical advice and screenings.
First Lady Monica Geingos was also in attendance.
“Through an initiative such as the Safe Motherhood campaign, women can learn how important it is to prepare for pregnancy,” Geingos said.
She said falling pregnant at an inconvenient time in one’s life was the main contributor to baby dumping.
“When you hear about baby dumping, your heart breaks for that little soul losing its life in that way… It is terrible and it should not happen.
We can only talk about stopping it when we have women who have access to information, access to contraceptives and access to the kind of talks we held today.
“Then if women still continue to dump babies, they must be charged. We cannot incriminate behaviour when have not provided support and choice.”
The Ongwediva Medipark managing director, Dr Tshali Iithete, said the initiative is important, and they are thinking about making it an annual event, because antenatal care is the single most important factor in determining the health of babies.
“In the past, young mothers were guided by elders, and now it is not happening anymore. Safe motherhood is a collective responsibility… many of our young mothers go through motherhood unaided.
It is also important to note that we must embrace the fact that the family unit is an important unit in our social fabric.
Therefore, husbands, fathers and partners are critical component of this unit,” he said.
ILENI NANDJATO
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