Integrated Maternal and Newborn Care Basic Skills Course ...

Reference Manual
Prevent tetanus
• Tetanus toxoid (TT). Provide TT if a dose is due and remind
women to keep the TT cards and vaccinations up to date.
.
Counsel on nutrition
• Advise the woman to eat a greater amount
and variety of healthy foods, such as meat,
fish, oils, nuts, seeds, cereals, beans,
vegetables, cheese, and milk, to help her
feel well and strong (give examples of types
of food and how much to eat).
• Reassure the mother that she can eat any
normal foods; these will not harm the
breastfeeding baby.
• Spend more time on nutrition counseling with very thin women and adolescents.
• Determine if there are important taboos about foods which are nutritionally healthy.
Advise the woman against these taboos.
• Talk to family members, such as the partner and mother-in-law, to encourage them to
help ensure the woman eats enough and avoids hard physical work.
• Remind the woman and her family that a
breastfeeding woman needs to eat extra. In
order to eat enough for herself and to
produce enough milk, she should ideally eat
five to seven times a day. If possible, she
should try to eat smaller quantities of food at
more frequent intervals during the day. In
low-resource settings in developing countries
where women eat less frequently, she should
take at least one extra meal a day.
• A breastfeeding woman needs to drink a lot. She should try
to drink something after every time her baby breastfeeds.
Integrated maternal and newborn care
Basic skills course
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