Breast Feeding and TBAs

By Sarah Sevcik Tanzania
10 July 2008

Today I went “into the field’ to participate in a Survive and Thrive Group meeting. Honest, our driver, took us to the town of Rhotia, where we first met with the Community Leader to introduce ourselves and accept his blessing. Then, in one of the community buildings most often used by military men, a group of 20 young village women gathered together with their notebooks and pens, eager to learn more about today’s topic: Breast feeding.

A photo of us sharing the road. We had to get out of our car and let our driver go into the field to let the people go by. It was fun!

Photo of Joyce teaching about breast feeding.

Although the session was conducted in Swahili, we were able to follow along decently well. The women learned about the benefits of breast feeding, when they should be breast feeding, and the importance of continuing to breast feed even when they (the mother) are ill (since antibodies get passed to the child). I became quickly entranced with one woman’s baby, who just as quickly became entranced with my jump drive/ carabineer device and decided to chew on it, throw it to the ground, and hit her mom with it. I tried to take the child into my arms so her mother had free hands to write the lesson, but she refused to leave her mother’s back or arms. That was, until we started playing “catch the jump drive” on the ground. :-)

The baby and me.

After the breast feeding lesson, the three Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) in the room continued their lessons with the MIHV staff. Traditional birth attendants are a lot like midwifes; they are female community leaders who have been trained in helping village women deliver children. The pregnancy monitoring tool Lizz and I put together yesterday came into view, and Veronica and Eveline (MIHV staff members) walked the TBAs through the form, teaching them how to use the form and making sure any questions were answered. The women were very excited about this new tool, as it keeps all the needed information in one place and is easy to use. We were all pleased. :-)

Eveline and Veronica showing the TBAs the new monitoring and evaluation tool.

Mothers studying about breast feeding.

More studying.

I’m currently working on some capacity building initiatives, such as putting together an Excel tutorial for some of the MIHV staff, especially those who want to use Excel for accounting and budgeting purposes. Chloe (a Temple med student) is putting together a tutorial for STATA, a statistical software program. We hope to conduct some lessons in the next week or two.
Another thought:I’m reminded of things we take for granted in America. I had a conversation with Peter, a Peace Corp volunteer in Karatu, who mentioned that when we go into a store or a restaurant, we expect the things on the menu or shelves to be there. And we expect them to look the same, taste the same, smell the same as every other time before. (Think McDonalds.) Here, it’s different. You may go to a restaurant and ask for chicken, but they don’t have it. Rice and beans? Maybe not today. Last week when we went into the town of Arusha to buy bread, no one had bread to buy. Water and electricity are similar issues. Last week the power went out all over the country, so we just had to wait to begin work. In the past couple of days water has been low, so we have been cautious about taking showers or using water for other washing. Although I enjoy consistency and predictability, I also love to be challenged with this kind of flexibility and unpredictability, realizing how unrealistic my American “sure-thing” upbringing is for most of the world.