Global Team of 200

 An Optimistic View of Breastfeeding in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia 52% of babies are put to the breast within one hour of being born and 52% of babies are exclusively breastfed through six months according to Save the Children’s State of the World’s Mothers 2012 report. While that number can definitely be improved Ethiopia has been given a “good” rating by Save the Children along with countries such as Rwanda and Eritrea that have percentages for the aforementioned breastfeeding indicators around the 70% range. Only four countries have been given “very good” ratings and they are Malawi, Madagascar, Peru and the Solomon Islands.

At Bishoftu Hospital, we meet two HIV mothers who received assistance through a US-funded program called Food by Prescription. Quietly speaking through translation, one woman, Mary (whose name has been changed) wipes away tears as she recounts her experience with the program. Mary, a thin woman with sun-worn skin, was diagnosed with malnutrition along with her HIV positive status and was provided free Plumpy’Sup (the adult equivalent of children’s Plumpy’Nut) in order to increase her weight. (via Day 2 in Ethiopia: Food by Prescription | Impatient Optimists)

Ethiopia, a country of 84 million and one of the world’s poorest according to the World Bank, is working diligently to save the lives of women and children; and it’s doing it with the help of an army of thousands of women.  The country is specifically aiming to reduce child mortality by two thirds and reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio, all by 2015. Unfortunately some of these numbers are stubborn in their refusal to decline rapidly enough – or decline at all. Between 2005 and 2011, Ethiopia’s newborn mortality rate only dropped two percentage points. 

(via My First Day in Ethiopia: An Army of Women Fight to Save Lives | Impatient Optimists)

Ethiopia has its health care flaws and challenges, but what it seems to have captured is an appreciation for simplicity. Ethiopia’s health care system is very easy to understand, even though implementation and results are not easily achievable.

(via Ethiopia’s Health Care Model, Workers)

No matter where you are babies can draw a crowd. It is no different in Ethiopia when we saw babies with their mothers at health posts and centers. One baby (seen below) wore a handmade bracelet her mother told us keeps away hiccups. Despite the mother’s use of cultural practices she still brought her baby into the health center for preventive medicine and a check-up with the nurses.

(via Mothers in Ethiopia and Newborn Care – Mom Bloggers for Social Good)

In a new program in Ethiopia called integrated community case management (ICCM) families in communities can be selected as “model families” to show the rest of the community the merits and benefits of healthy living. Some of the indicators that prove healthy living in rural Ethiopia are separation of the kitchen from the main house so no one inhales cookstove smoke, using a bed net to reduce the possibility of getting malaria, getting children fully immunized, and having a latrine to discourage public defecation that leads to death and disease. (via Two Model Ethiopian Families | Perspectives & Reflections with Jennifer James)