TODAY NICARAGUA – Nicaragua will present during a international conference a pilot project that promotes the healthy practice of breastfeeding by sending text messages to couples expecting a baby, Unicef reported.
The project, led by Unicef, is implemented in the municipality of Bluefields, in the Autonomous Region of the South Caribbean (RACS), and is to promote in short messages the importance of breastfeeding in the baby’s first hour of life, exclusively for the first six months of birth and complementary up to two years of age.
Nicaragua has a rate of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life of 30.5%
Rafael Amador, an early childhood development specialist from Nicaragua, said that the project will be presented between August 21 and 23 at an international conference to be held in Managua and will be attended by experts of Central America and the Caribbean.
Amador said that the pilot project, which was born two and a half years ago, is currently carried out with 850 women who are pregnant or have already given birth.
He explained that the text messages will be sent until the baby is one year old, in coordination with the Ministry of Health (Minsa).
“This has been so successful that Bluefields’ Silais (Sistema Local de Atención Integral en Salud or Local Comprehensive Health Care System in English) has begun to expand it in other surrounding communities,” he said.
During the three-day conference in Managua, which will take place during the month of breastfeeding, organizers hope that this project can be replicated in other municipalities in Nicaragua, and eventually in other countries in the region.
Source: DiarioMetro.com
Article originally appeared at Today Nicaragua and is republished here with permission. Read the original.
