The Initiative for Women and Girls Right Advancement (IWOGRA) with support from ActionAid Nigeria and funding from Global Affairs Canada has trained pregnant women, nursing mothers and their partners, nurses, midwives, community members in Jikwoyi and Dutse-Alhaji communities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on managing postpartum depression in women.
Executive Director of the non-governmental women and girls’ right organisation, Nkechi Obiagbaoso-Udegbunam, while facilitating the trainings, stated that the intervention was being carried out through the Women’s Voice and Leadership (WVL) Nigeria Project, Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and as part of efforts to create awareness and build support for the prevention and management of postpartum depression in women.
The training was recently conducted at the Primary Healthcare Centres in the two communities using the ‘Prevention and Management of Postpartum Depression in Women’ Training Manual by IWOGRA.
The participants were trained on the entire module of the manual, which covers areas like postpartum depression types, signs and symptoms, causes, risk factors, prevention, management and treatment methods, among many others.
The participants were also trained on how to support and help in the recovery of their partners, patients, neighbours or community members experiencing postpartum depression.
An interactive and participatory approach was adopted in the training where the participants exchanged ideas and experiences on postpartum depression. Some participants also shared how the knowledge they got from the training made them to unlearn and learn best approaches in identifying the signs and symptoms of postpartum depression and how best to support women experiencing postpartum depression.
Obiagbaoso-Udegbunam stated that the idea of bringing the diverse participants into a peer cycle was to ensure sustainability of actions beyond the project’s lifespan and to test match the pregnant women, nursing mothers and the healthcare service providers from the Primary Healthcare Centres where the women were accessing health services.
She noted that to ensure collective monitoring of results and change, IWOGRA would constantly follow-up with the healthcare providers to see if they are providing support to the women and how they are addressing postpartum depression. She explained that they were encouraged to educate women about postpartum depression during antenatal and postnatal sessions for increased awareness.
“The partners of the pregnant women and nursing mothers were also encouraged to always be supportive to prevent the women from falling into postpartum depression,” she said, adding that the training manual is available at the organisation’s website.
