August news

August is a big month for Bosom Buddies. Women’s month means the focus nationwide is on the health and well-being is on that of the woman, which is why it is in the week coming up to Women’s Day, we celebrate breastfeeding week.   

In South Africa our child mortality rates are alarmingly high and maternal mortality rates are rising.   A large percentage of these deaths are preventable. We believe that through education, support and constant guidance, we can make a real difference, which is why we offer breastfeeding education and support groups at our local clinics daily.

In the partnership between public healthcare and BB, we form a holistic care for our mothers. We offer more than antenatal and baby care; it is about life and lifestyle, finding the voice in the mother. I encourage our women to know their rights, to demand quality service and to ask questions.
Our ultimate aim is to significantly reduce stillbirths and infant deaths and to elevate maternal well-being in our area.

Our focus this past breastfeeding week was on two of our new clinics, Kleinvlei and Grabouw Day Hospital. We have had a presence in these two facilities since May and during breastfeeding week we decided to spoil our moms with special treats and gifts. In spite of chilly winds in Grabouw, loads of women attended. It is a tremendous privilege and often very rewarding to meet and educate these mothers. Zoleka put it perfectly when she said that that’s how we roll – every woman leaves rich in knowledge, with a smile on her face!

This Women’s Day I would like to remind our readers again of the women we at Thembalitsha meet on a daily basis:

·         The HIV positive mother whose biggest fear is transmitting the disease to her child.

·         The 15-year-old mother who is still a child herself.

·         The young woman in love who thinks he might love her back if she does not insist on using a condom.

·         The Choices mother who feels she has no choice but to give this baby to someone else.

·         The mother who goes to hospital with such joyous anticipation but goes home with empty arms because her baby was born sleeping.

·         The mother who is having her 6^th child because nobody has ever spoken to her about sterilisation or birth control.

·         The abused woman who fears her own home and what might happen every night.

·         The privileged mother who has 3 of her own children, but still feels that she has the capacity, strength and love to foster or adopt another.

·         Even the woman who lives on the street and who has given up trying to quit a long time ago and gives birth to a baby with foetal alcohol syndrome.

·         And also to the desperate, the depressed, the isolated mother who feels she has no other choice but to abandon her baby.

Mamas having tea in the postnatal room, Grabouw Day Hospital.