Contribute My Effort
“I immediately know that breastfeeding is good for the children and for the mothers.” The fifty-two year old Wei Nai-rong used this simple statement to evaluate her work.
As a community health volunteer, she contributed considerable time and energy to serve the women and children in her village. She participated in training, conducted home visits, with the purpose of imparting the breastfeeding knowledge that she learned to women. This will produce positive effect to the health of the next generations.
“Let us do the work. You just go and be rest assured!” When it was busy farming seasons, her family members would let her be freed so as to follow-up those women who needed help in breastfeeding.
At the very beginning, some women questioned that weren’t their kids growing quite well even though they were not fed with breastmilk before? This was due to the deep-seated traditional concept. For those in older grandparents, they said that the kids in their days were only breastfed for one month and then fed with corn porridge. Towards these situations, Nai-rong used her perseverance and diligence to persuade these mothers and grandparents in the families.
“In the first few days after discharged from hospital, World Vision staff and me start home visits to the women. We teach them the proper positioning in breastfeeding. We teach them little by little. Even if the family members of the women show some resistance, I still will not let go. Gradually, when the mothers begin to realize the benefits of breastfeeding, we will let them to persuade their family members. The women than persist and maintain exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months.” Nai-rong recalled.
It was this great patience that she gradually helped them to accept the concept of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months.
What she was most proud of and happy about was that women changed their previous practices. They started to change and stop feeding their babies with water. With these changes seen, Wei Nai-rong felt that her work was worthwhile.
In the continuous follow-up process, she explained in detail the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding to the mothers and her family members, and the best food for the babies. For example, there are immunoglobulins in the breastmilk and can increase the body resistance of the baby. They reduce the change of being sick. It is because if water and sugar were given to the babies, it could easily lead to diarrhea. This will also affect their growth and development.
“I feel that exclusive breastfeeding should be greatly promoted and increase its influence so that our next generations can be healthy.” Wei Nai-rong looks into the future and hopes that she can continue to contribute her effort in this work.