Dr Niyaf's Online Clinic: Breastfeeding counseling training at IGMH.

Welcome to Dr Niyaf's Online Clinic. On this blog-styled site I have decidedly concentrated mostly on topics related to my medical specialty and expertise. I therefore write mostly on issues related to Child Health, Newborn Care, Infant & Young Child Nutrition and Thalassaemia. In more recent times I have also begun writing about issues that have a bearing on how the future of Maldivian health care is shaped. Hope you benefit from the content.

Breastfeeding counseling training at IGMH.

Eighteen participants are, by end of this week, a quarter of the way into UNICEF training on Breastfeeding Counseling and Lactation Management. Organized by the Department of Child Health (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) at IGMH in association with Center for Community Health and Disease Control (CCHDC), the training is being undertaken by doctors and nurses from IGMH, ADK and CCHDC.

We are hoping to be able to certify the participants as counselors before commencement of activities for this years World Breastfeeding Week - 1st to 7th August. The week is marked every year to re-focus attention on the importance of protecting, promoting and safeguarding breastfeeding. The challenges are many and the way forward is to educate more and more people; especially women of child-bearing age into the benefits of breastfeeding. I hope this year we would, in addition hold discussions with school children too. More on the activities for the week coming later.