Women have been urged to prioritise their health and balance family responsibilities with personal aspirations. This was at Mom’s Conference and Exhibition, themed ‘Mothers as Leaders; Elevating family, Career and Well-being Globally’ held in Lagos.
Founder of the conference, Zibi Anani, explaining the reason for the conference, said her inspiration came partly from her own mother, who had to forfeit her career after childbearing.
“It is a reminder that we are not just women that end up in the kitchen, but that we should forge on and not forget our personal aspirations as women,” she said.
This year’s edition, the second since its debut in September 2024, featured panel discussions, health lectures, and networking sessions, with participants reflecting on issues from pregnancy and cervical cancer prevention to women’s leadership and family planning.
Anani stressed the importance of men’s involvement in the home, saying, “It’s not just about impregnating, marrying, and zooming off. We encourage men to attend so they understand they must be part of the process.”
According to her, women don’t have to necessarily have a blue-collar job to be a leader. Whatever activity you are engaged in as a woman, you are a leader. Anani told participants, while urging mothers to pursue harmony in faith, fitness, finance, and family life.
“Do not let the world define you. If you do not know who you are, the world will tell you who you are. Keep thriving, keep moving, and remember that the sky is beyond us.”Partner, Jackson, Etti & Edu law firm, Mrs. Chinyere Okorocha, highlighted the resilience of mothers.
“That’s what is called tenacity. When you want something, you go for it. That is one quality that I know mothers have,” she said. Okorocha shared her personal story of combining work and motherhood. In 1996, just months after giving birth, she was called to represent her law firm at an international conference in the UK. With a four-month-old baby at home, she devised a creative plan to store breast milk, enlisted her mother’s help, and persuaded her husband to buy a generator to preserve the supply.
“I wasn’t going to let that opportunity slide. But one thing I had always told myself was that my family would not suffer because I was a working woman,” she said.She traveled to London with her breast pump, enduring physical pain to maintain milk production while attending the conference.
“My child will not suffer. My career will not suffer. That’s what tenacity means,” she said. Lagos State’s High-Level Coordinator for Family Health and Nutrition, Dr. Durosimi Oluwatoyin, urged participants to take advantage of free and low-cost interventions available at primary health centers, general hospitals, and mobile clinics. These include antenatal care, safe motherhood programs, family planning services, and postnatal support.
She explained that their services cover risk assessments, nutritional counseling, danger sign awareness, skilled birth attendance, tetanus immunisation, and post-pregnancy family planning. She cautioned women against relying on unskilled birth attendants.
