By Lilian Mukoche
Kakamega County, Kenya: There have been a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about Covid-19 and this has affected how pregnant and breastfeeding mothers operate in terms of visiting hospitals for antenatal and postnatal clinics.
“At some point, fake news on Coronavirus affected me to the point of fearing to visit the hospital,” says Faridah Salim who’s 6 months pregnant. She says she had to talk to a nurse friend who gave her true information and facts that got her convinced to visit the clinic.
“Covid-19 brought about a lot of misinformation especially to us the breastfeeding mothers. I had just given birth in January 2020 and in March Corona came. Was so afraid on whether to breastfeed the baby or not fearing that my baby will contract the virus,” says Lilian a mother of an 11months old baby.
She says this was as a result of misinformation for the truth is that the virus cannot be transmitted by breastfeeding and it’s only by visiting the clinic that facts about covid-19 were explained to breastfeeding mothers.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), breastfeeding protects newborns from getting sick and also helps protect them throughout their infancy and childhood.
Breastfeeding is particularly effective against infectious diseases because it strengthens the immune system by directly transferring antibodies from the mother.
Mercy Chelang’at a mother with an 8 months old baby says she’s not affected in any way by the misconceptions and misinformation on Covid-19 and she strictly follows measures put in place by the government to protect herself and her child.
“My baby is now 8 months old and I do clinic visits every month and since it’s a private facility, the contact is minimal for its not congested.” She says adding that she uses private means of transport and immediately she gets back to the house, she goes straight to the bathroom to take a bath before attending to her baby.
“I haven’t encountered any fake news about Covid-19 but even if they were there, I would not be worried because clinics for me are a must.” This is according to Sheila Khayesi who’s expecting her child in January 2021.
She says her health is very important to her and so she makes sure that her mask is on always whenever she’s in a crowd and washes her hands always to be protected from the corona.
Whitney Onindo a mother with a two-month-old baby says she’s extra careful with or without the fake news.
On her part, it’s important to observe hygiene and she can’t fail to go to the clinic since caretakers teach them how to take care of their newborn babies during this period of the pandemic
According to Judy Maloba, a nurse at Kitengela Sub County hospital, the numbers of mothers attending both prenatal and postnatal care sessions have reduced during the pandemic compared to before, and this cuts across several hospitals.
She says this is due to fear that they are at a higher risk of contracting the virus and therefore avoid going to high-risk places. She advises these mothers to attend clinics because they are of benefit to the mother and child. Judy assures them that hospitals are safe and enough measures have been put in place to protect the patients.
In order to minimize the spread of fake news, she says community health workers visit homes to raise awareness and educate mothers on the facts about covid-19 and how to prevent themselves from contracting the virus.
