Lahore: Healthcare professionals in both the public and private health system play key role in reaching, engaging, and influencing women and their gate keepers -husbands, mothers-in-law, on essential health and nutrition actions, said Dr. Asif Niazi, Deputy Director IRMNCH &Nutrition Program Punjab during a technical session “Role of healthcare providers and frontline health workers for improving maternal nutrition”, organized by Nutrition International at the 5th PMS Biennial Conference by Pakistan Medical Association on 11-13 November.
Addressing at the event, Dr Sher Shah Syed, President-Pakistan National Forum on Women’s Health shared that Pakistani Women of Reproductive Age (WRA) bear the triple burden of malnutrition – undernutrition, overweight/obesity and micronutrient deficiencies, . Inadequate nutrition particularly during pregnancy can have a range of adverse effects on the health and wellbeing of both the mother and the child – maternal mortality, pre term birth, baby low birthweight, stunting, wasting etc.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Irshad Dansih, Senior Advocacy Advisor, Nutrition International stated that healthcare professionals including frontline health workers, can play essential role to educate and counsel pregnant women for making informed decisions during their pregnancy.
Sharing Nutrition International commitment to improved maternal and child nutrition, Dr. Danish said that, this year marks three decades of Nutrition International works to fight against malnutrition. Nutrition International is long-standing partner of Government of Pakistan to address malnutrition issues in the country. We are specifically focusing women and children for addressing micronutrient deficiencies, through Vitamin-A, Iron Folic Acid supplementation and large-scale food fortification interventions across Pakistan, he added.
Sharing overview of Maternal Nutrition Strategy Pakistan 2022-27, Dr. Khawaja Masuood Ahmed, Nutrition and National Fortification Alliance said that Federal Government developed the strategy with the support of all relevant stakeholders and provincial government to support optimal nutrition, health, and well-being of all women in Pakistan, as well as prevent all forms of malnutrition among vulnerable women during preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum. The strategy focused to enhance Maternal Nutrition (MN) outcomes through creating and sustaining an enabling environment, comprehensive MN package for ANC & PNC, integrating MN interventions across different sectoral programs, and guide evidence-based programming through monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning.
Discussing the need of integrating nutrition counseling at first point of contact in healthcare delivery, Dr. Muhammad Aslam Bajwa, Associate Professor Fatima Memorial Hospital (FMH) Medical College that poor healthcare seeking behavior as well as suboptimal health provision behavior of doctors lead to poor health and nutrition outcomes. Healthcare providers command trust and respect of the community, thus they have a greater responsibility to counsel the patients and their families for positive and healthy behaviors and motivate for adherence.
Highlighting dietary and caloric recommendations during pregnancy, Dr. Farhana Shahid, Country Nutrition Advisor for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) said nutrition counseling of women during pregnancy is important however the healthcare providers need to be equipped with the relevant knowledge and improved counseling skills to deliver the message effectively. She added that we should not only emphasize on the diet during pregnancy but balanced diet, regular exercise, maintain appropriate weight gain, timely mineral and vitamin supplementation
The session was attended by large number of public health and medical professionals, academia and government officials, who expressed keen interest in the information provided during the session and emphasized continuation of such awareness raising events.