UNICEF partners Bauchi to tackle anaemia among pregnant women

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says it will partner the Bauchi State Government to tackle and mitigate the negative effects of anaemia in pregnancy, scaling up Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) to all pregnant women.

Philomena Irene, a Nutrition Specialist with the UNICEF made this known while speaking at a day inception meeting of Scale-Up of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) for Pregnant Women in Bauchi State.

According to her, the National Demographic Health Information Survey (NDHIS) 2018, showed that only 23% of 381,364 pregnant women in Bauchi State receive iron and folic acid supplementation, which is crucial in reducing the risk of low birth weight, maternal anaemia and iron deficiency.

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She stated that, under the scale-up, Bauchi State had received 134, 280 bottles of MMS, adding that more would be supplied as the project implementation progresses.

Irene noted that the United Nations Children’s Fund would work with the Bauchi State Government to ensure that Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) was included in the annual State Procurement Plan.

She said that UNICEF would work towards ensuring that the funds were released through the Child Nutrition Fund for the procurement of MMS.

Irene said during the meeting organized by the Bauchi State Government in collaboration with UNICEF and Alive and Thrive, that the life-saving initiative was generously funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and implemented by UNICEF in partnership with the Government of Nigeria and the Bauchi State Government.

“We are here today to launch the scale up of multiple micronutrient supplements with the aim of improving pregnancy outcomes in Bauchi state”, she said.

According to Irene, the initiative is expected to strengthen the ante-natal platforms to deliver high impact maternal nutrition interventions in Bauchi State.

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The Nutrition Specialist explained that the initiative would also strengthen the capacity of health workers to effectively forecast and update MMS administration to pregnant women in Bauchi State on the Logistics Health Management Information system (LHIMS) and DHIS 2 platforms.

She added that the scale up of MMS for pregnant women aligns with the Nigerian Government’s plan to reduce anaemia among pregnant women to 40% by 2025.

“It also feeds into the SDG 2030 goal of reducing anemia among pregnant women by 50 percent by 2030”, she said.