BONTOC, Mountain Province – Twenty-two health and nutrition providers in this municipality recently underwent three-day Maternal Nutrition Infant Young Child Feeding (MNIYCF) Peer Counselling Training at the Samoki Valley Inn here in the capital town.
The training aimed to capacitate members of the Breastfeeding Support Group of necessary knowledge in the delivery of services that will ensure an increase in the number of babies who are exclusively breastfed for six months.
Thus, the training focused on services on nutrition, health, early learning, and social services for pregnant women and children below two years old. These include key nutrition interventions for the first six months to include adequate nutrition and care during pregnancy, support for exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life, giving complementary food starting at six months, and continued breastfeeding up to two years and even beyond.
The participants are the midwives in the 16 barangays of Bontoc and personnel from the Municipal Health Office (MHO)since they have contact with pregnant women, mothers, and their infants and young children in the community.
Bontoc Mayor “Jerome” Chagsen Tudlong, Jr., remarked that in the roadmap of the administration for the next three years, “ENLANGAKHA: Achieving the Vision for a Dynamic Bontoc”, one of its pillars is to Empower Communities giving paramount importance to the promotion of health and nutrition.
Sangguniang Bayan member and Chairperson of Committee on Health Benedict Odsey II encouraged the participants to put into practice the knowledge that they will gain from the training in the delivery of quality services to the community.
Municipal Nutrition Action Officer Venous Faith Cofulan mentioned that the training is in line with the National and World Breastfeeding Awareness Month in August. Also, this is in consonance with Republic Act 11148, otherwise known as “Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act”, and its Implementing Rules and Regulations, led by the Department of Health (DOH) in its continued commitments to improve the health, well-being, and nutrition interventions of mothers and children.
The law seeks to scale up the national and local health and nutrition programs through a strengthened integrated strategy for maternal, neonatal, and child health and nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life, where national policies are streamlined across DOH offices and bureaus to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in programming and resource allocation.
The resource speakers are nutritionist dietitian Candice Salingbay and midwife Mary Lee Piluden, both from the DOH- Regional Office.
Among the topics are: Importance of the Health and Nutrition of the Mother and Child in the First 1,000 Days; Maternal Health and Nutrition; Recommended IYCF Practices: Breastfeeding; IYCN- related policies; How to Counsel on Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition; Recommended IYCF Practices: Complimentary Feeding for Infants and Young Children; IYCF in the Context of Emergencies, HIV, and other Infectious Diseases; Child Development and Nutrition; Behavior Change Activities; and Community Organizing and Supportive Supervision.
The training was spearheaded by the municipal government through the MHO and the budget for the conduct of the activity was sourced out from the Gender and Development fund.
