3 poor daily meals almost killed her unborn baby

Just like knowledge about germs or the need to wash your hands, knowledge about proper nutrition is not something you are born with. You have to learn it from those who know, or you may never know why your children’s skins are always so ashy and their stomachs are larger than those of their friends.
Two years ago, Aisha Bako, a 37-year-old mother of four, thought she knew what a balanced diet was, until she got pregnant again. 

The pregnancy was so problematic that at her first antenatal clinic, the nurse had to lead her away from other pregnant women for a special session with the doctor. Her pregnancy was in danger if she didn’t improve her nutrition and fast.
Bako resides in Obogugu Village, somewhere in Obongi District. She was diagnosed with malnutrition during her fourth pregnancy and told to not just eat at least three times a day but also to ensure her meals provided a balanced diet.

Bako didn’t know what a balanced diet was, which is why when she met the health personnel a month after the first antenatal clinic, she was in worse shape than before. 
She didn’t know how to get herself onto a balanced diet.
“Whenever I went to the hospital, they would tell me I had low blood [anaemic]. I would then ask myself how come I had low blood and yet I was eating every meal at home. You know what people used to think? They thought I was not eating. But I told them I was eating all the meals every day. They then told me I should improve my nutrition. But I didn’t know how,” Bako says.

At the time of the diagnosis, Bako was severely underweight. She always felt tired and her appetite was very low. Had she not changed her feeding habits, she would probably have lost her unborn baby.
To save her and her unborn baby, she was chosen by the Village Health Team (VHT) to attend a nutrition and family planning training in March 2021. Fourteen other women from Obogugu Village were selected for the same training.
“That training changed my life and that of my family. There is so much I didn’t know about food at my age,” she says with gratitude.
At the time, Bako was so malnourished and so weak that they carried her to the venue while the rest of the women walked.

The training that changed her life
The training was arranged by the Lutheran World Foundation under the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda and Livelihood Enhancement of West Nile and Acholi (DINU-LEWA) project from the prime minister’s Office, which was launched in 2020 in 10 districts in northern Uganda and West Nile and executed by Lutheran World Federation (LWF), DanChurch Aid (DCA), the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) and Mukwano Industries.

The project is aimed at fighting poverty, hunger and promoting good health and well-being among 56,000 small holder farmers in the region. At the three-day training, Bako and 14 other young mothers were trained on how to prepare nutritious meals.
“I realise now that all I cared about before the training was eating and filling my stomach and those of my children. I didn’t know that beyond eating to satisfaction, there was more to food,” she says.
She adds, “Usually, we would eat what was in season every day until the season ended. Cow peas with cassava every day, beans with posho, like that, until the season ended. We only ate mangoes when they were in season and didn’t eat them again until the next season.”
“They taught us that if you are pregnant or breast feeding, you should feed more frequently. They showed us that you should have all the food values because they are good for your health, and they told us to keep changing the food.”

The new way
Once Bako started practicing the health advice at home, she felt stronger and healthier. When she started eating a more balanced diet, her skin became less dry and her pregnant body gained the much-needed flesh. When the baby was born, she was healthy and beautiful.
“Today, when I prepare a meal, I try to include food that is rich in vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates; energy giving foods. So, mixing is the new way as opposed to when we would cook the same dish everyday until the season ended.”
They were also trained on how to have a healthy pregnancy and safe delivery.

Helping others
Today, her children have lost the ashy skins and the potbellies. They are gaining the beauty of children that she dreamed of during her honeymoon. 
Baku teaches other mothers how to beat malnutrition. She and her new friends belong to a group called Care Mothers. Their aim is to spread the good message of nutrition and family planning to those young mothers who hadn’t been so lucky to be a part of the training.
Bako and her fellow young mothers have been empowered to be able to identify malnourished children in the community before referring them to the Village Health Teams for further handling.

Changes in farming
The women of Care Mother group have been urged to practice backyard gardening to facilitate their new found knowledge. Bako’s backyard is decorated with vegetables of different colours; red okra, yellow beans, whitish-greenish cabbages, and orange fleshed potatoes.
All the other members of her group are doing the same allover Obogugu Village because one can’t have a balanced diet without all sorts of foods at their disposal.
On top of her vast knowledge of nutrition, the DINU-LEWA project gave her vegetable seeds and vines for the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to fight for better health and nutrition. Orange-fleshed potatoes are a known great source of Vitamin C and stands in when the more common sources of this important vitamin (citrus fruits) are absent.

Family planning
One of the reasons for malnutririon in Obogugu Village is the lack of spacing between pregnancies, Bako says. Constant pregnancy means less productivity in the farms, less food and poor feeding. So the Care Mothers group is championing family planning.
“Since we had this training, we have many mothers who have started adopting some family planning methods to space their children. It has become clear that producing frequently weakens the body and renders the mother less productive. So there are some mothers amidst us who can testify to us,” Bako says.