Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
NIGER / BREASTFEEDING
STORY: NIGER / BREASTFEEDING
TRT: 2.54
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /HAUSA / NATS
DATELINE: AUGUST 2010, MARADI PROVINCE, NIGER
1. Wide shot, ox cart rides by
2. Close up, woman riding ox cart pan to other woman
3. Wide shot, ox cart from behind
4. Med shot, women at clinic pan to midwife
5. Close up, woman
6. Wide shot, behind women clinic
7. Med shot, woman breastfeeding child
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mickey Chopra, Chief of Health, UNICEF:
"It protects the child from many of the dangers that a baby and a young child face in a place like Niger where there's big problems with diarrhea, lack of clean water, with general poverty as well."
9. Med shot, boy
10. Wide shot, children in village
11. Med shot, boy outside hut
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Mickey Chopra, Chief of Health, UNICEF:
"It has the thirteenth highest level of mortality for young children. and therefore breastfeeding and exclusive breast-feeding is probably as important there as it is anywhere in the world, not least because it's an antibiotic itself as well"
13. Close up, baby breastfeeding tilt up to mother
14. Close up, woman breastfeeding tilt down to baby
15. Med shot, women and children
16. Wide shot, village
17. Close up, mother over baby
18. Close up, sick baby
19. Wide shot, women under tree
20. Close up, mothers tilt down to breast feeding
21. Close up, woman
22. Close up, tilt up baby to mother
23. Wide shot, radio studio
24. Close up, radio announcer
25. Wide shot, mothers and baby pan to community animator
26. Close up community animator
27. Wide shot, mother prepares food
28. Med shot, woman pounds
29. Close up, baby
30. SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Akuma Yaduza, Mother:
"My neighbour did it with her child so I decided to try it too. I've noticed a big difference. He has never been sick and I've never needed had to take him to the clinic. No diarrhea, no vomiting. Absolutely nothing."
31. Med shot, mother and child
32. Wide shot, women and children
33. Wide shot, inside hut
34. Med shot, mother breastfeeding
35. Close up, mother breastfeeding
36. Wide shot, inside hut
37. Close up, mother breastfeeding
Seventeen-year-old Rahina Musa is nine-months pregnant with her first child.
She will be giving birth any day now and her husband is taking her to the rural health center near their village for her final check-up together with other expecting mothers.
Like all pregnant women in Niger and those with young children, she receives free health care.
Besides providing regular check-ups and treating diseases, a key function of these UNICEF supported village health posts, is to educate mothers on simple practices that can have dramatic health benefits.
One of the most important is exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months.
SOUNDBITE (English) Mickey Chopra, Chief of Health, UNICEF:
"It protects the child from many of the dangers that a baby and a young child face in a place like Niger where there's big problems with diarrhea, lack of clean water, with general poverty as well. It has the thirteenth highest level of mortality for young children and therefore breastfeeding and exclusive breast-feeding is probably as important there as it is anywhere in the world, not least because it's an antibiotic itself as well."
Colostrum the first milk secreted by a woman immediately after giving birth contains large quantities of antibodies which help the baby fight illnesses.
Studies have shown that exclusively breast-feeding a child for the first six months can reduce infant mortality by up to 13 percent.
Saving young lives is especially crucial in Niger. The country is in the grip of a food crisis which threatens more than 500,000 children with severe malnutrition.
To this end, UNICEF together with Niger's Public Health Ministry has launched a nationwide campaign to promote breastfeeding and discourage the traditional practice of only giving babies water, juices and herbal liquids.
They are spreading the message through radio and television, but most importantly in villages across the country using "community animators" to encourage behaviour change.
Akuma Yaduza is a mother of six, but seven month-old Aba is her first child to be exclusively breast fed.
SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Akuma Yaduza, Mother:
My neighbour did it with her child so I decided to try it too. I've noticed a big difference. He has never been sick and I've never needed had to take him to the clinic. No diarrhea, no vomiting. Absolutely nothing."
Today only 10 percent of women in Niger are exclusively breastfeeding, so empowering women to embrace the practice is an urgent priority for UNICEF.
Just a few days after her last visit to the clinic Rahina Musa has given birth to a baby girl and is putting into practice what she has learned, giving her child the most important foundation for a healthy life.
Download
There is no media available to download.
