NUTRITION Awareness Week begins today, under the theme, “Healthy Eating and Active Living: You, Your Health and Your Future”.And according to the Food Policy Division of the Ministry of Public Health, “This year, we are taking our outreach to Region 10, where we will be conducting a two-day session with pregnant teenagers.”
Those sessions, the ministry says, will be held at the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) from 08:30 hrs. to 15:30 hrs. daily, with participants being exposed to educational and practical sessions on:
* Safe Motherhood;
* Healthy Diet and Meal Planning;
* Anaemia (including the use of Sprinkles),
* Early Childhood Development (focusing on Breastfeeding); and
* Empowering Teens to Return to School.

As the health ministry has observed in a press statement, “It is a known fact that babies born to teenagers are more likely to have lower birth weights, increased risk of infant mortality, and an increased risk of some congenital anomalies.
“The importance of nutrition during pregnancy for the health of both mother and child is well documented. Nutritional needs are high in adolescence as the body grows and develops. Thus, when a teenager becomes pregnant she needs all the help and support she can get.
“Further, the survey on ‘Iron, Iodine and Vitamin A Status and Antibody Levels in Guyana (2012)’ yielded valuable information on the iron status of the Guyanese population.”
By World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, the ministry says, “24% of young children under five years old, 20.8 % of schoolchildren, and 41.3% of antenatal women” were found to be anaemic, while “a significant percentage (51.0%) of pregnant women with anaemia were 20 years old and younger.”
Noting that the foregoing findings are “of crucial public health significance and concern, as iron deficiency has serious health consequences,” the ministry says:
“Mounting evidence indicates that maternal iron deficiency in pregnancy reduces fetal iron stores, perhaps well into the first year of life. An anaemic pregnant woman is at greater risk during the perinatal period.
“To address this, recommendations from the Micronutrient Survey has emphasized that pregnant women were not only tested but counseled on the need for iron, when and how to use iron, and how much iron to use. It was also recommended that pregnant women and parents/guardians of young children be counselled on diet.
“Awareness activities regarding iron-deficiency anaemia, a preventable health condition, are continuous and ongoing by the Food Policy Division of the Ministry of Public Health. This outreach is another such activity as we continue to strive to achieve our goals in making our population healthier.”