Mr. Busiri Julius Korsuk, a Public Health Specialist working for AMREF Health Africa in South Sudan during an interview with Winnie Eric -Credit | Winnie Eric | May 2021

A healthy diet is an important part of a healthy lifestyle at any time but is especially vital if you’re pregnant or planning a pregnancy. Eating healthily during pregnancy will help your baby to develop and grow.

You do not need to go on a special diet, but it’s important to eat a variety of different foods every day to get the right balance of nutrients that you and your baby need.

It’s best to get vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat, but when you’re pregnant you need to take a folic acid supplement as well, to make sure you get everything you need.

In regards to South Sudan despite the economic disaster, we have women who get pregnant and still give birth to healthy babies; hence I went to find out from some pregnant women within Juba, on what they feed on locally to keep them healthy.

Juru Clementina, a seven months old pregnant mother was among the women I spoke to.

“I eat anything, especially greens, I love eating greens so much, I look healthy but sometimes I eat once in the evening only and apart from greens, I consume meat, chicken and fruits like bananas because I love bananas.” She said.

Juru further passes her advice to pregnant women like her on how they’ll feel if they don’t eat well.

“My advice to pregnant mothers like me is to eat because as a pregnant mother, you will not feel good with hunger and you need to eat what the baby wants,” stated Juru.

Rose Pharaoh, a resident of Khor William said that she feeds on simple food to keep her and her unborn baby healthy and encouraged other pregnant women to feed well during pregnancy in order not to become anaemic which may require blood donation.

“I eat beans and silver fish to keep my child and myself healthy, my advice to pregnant mothers is that they should feed well because many pregnant women nowadays lack blood in the hospitals and they have been given blood in most cases.”

Sarah Samuel, a mother to three and also pregnant elaborated that a mother should eat anything she feels like because when she does not, it will weaken her because some women vomit a lot during pregnancy and her favourite is meat and fish and porridge.

“As pregnant mother, I eat anything I feel like eating, some women don’t want to eat, they stay without food and they vomit a lot which weakens them so even though the vomiting persists, don’t give up with food, force it,” said Sarah.

Hajer Khalil, another pregnant mother, explained that although all foods are good for the body, there are certain food doctors recommend to pregnant mothers and these are the important foods pregnant women need to follow.

“All foods are good for the body but there are certain foods doctors recommend for pregnant mothers since from the beginning of pregnancy like milk is important not on a daily basis but at least every after two to three days.” She said.

“Fruits like guavas, mangoes and oranges can help your baby’s health and yourself.”

Kiden Betty who is also pregnant shared her experience as a pregnant mother on the food she eats and mentioned some foods that are not necessarily good for pregnant women and can cause diseases.

“I eat greens because greens keep my body healthy, you also need to eat fruits like mangoes, carrots and cut tomatoes to make salads with paste, it is good. Do not eat too much oil because it can cause blood pressure,” Kiden stated.

Mary Ayak who is still a young mother said eating energy giving food, carbohydrates, vitamins and fruits is good for a pregnant woman as well as going for antenatal check-up.

“I eat vegetables and greens, cassava, fruits to keep me healthy and I also go for antenatal care more especially those with the first pregnancy to get tetanus injection and check if the baby is in good position, lack of blood and STDs like syphilis, UTI for early treatment,” Ayak explained.

According to Mr. Busiri Julius Korsuk, a Public Health Specialist working for Amref Health Africa in South Sudan, and also a Program Manager for reproductive Health, Maternal newborn, Child and Adolescent Health as well as Nutrition has this to says;

“In South Sudan we are still lucky that our diet largely is coming from organic food so the food that pregnant women have been eating from what I witnessed fits what is recommended.” said Busiri.

“Basically the bread coming from wheat that is not so processed, our common asida is a good source of energy but most importantly the greens and fruits are components of their diet.”

“In addition to the nutrients like the protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals, there are specific nutrients every pregnant woman should focus on like folates, folate is a folic acid found in the common food we eat and that is the greens and in the hospitals, supplementary folic acid tablets are recommended for daily consumption.” Busiri added.

“Calcium is very important because when a woman is pregnant, inside her is a baby who is growing and the baby will need their own bones so for the bones to grow, they will need calcium, unfortunately if the woman is not eating calcium, the body parts of the baby will not grow well.” Busiri continued.

“Iron which comes mainly from red meats like cow meat, goats meat, is a very good source of iron and iron is very good because iron is a source of blood so when a woman is pregnant the child is growing and the child needs their own blood and the woman needs their blood too.” Busiri said.

“Iodine is also important, iodine is a mineral salt that is important for the growth of a child especially in the first few months of growth but like any other person a balanced diet is important for pregnant women.” He further said.

Busiri precedes that for a pregnant woman to ensure healthy diets they should ensure that the food they eat is clean because even if I tell a woman to eat a balanced diet.

“If the balanced diet is not prepared in a clean way, the body has a way of rejecting that food, sometimes they get diarrhoea.”

“Secondly, take a balanced diet that has a combination of different foods, carbohydrates, protein, mineral salts, vitamins and fats and take a lot of water, water is usually not mentioned in the food nutrients but water is very important for a pregnant woman.” Busiri elaborated.

Busiri also said that certain things can happen to the unborn child and the mother when a pregnant woman doesn’t have good nutrition.

“In the first three months of pregnancy that is when the baby is forming the different body parts like the head, hands, legs and all other different body parts that is when they need all the nutrients because the nutrients are building all the blocks of body parts.”

“In some cases, if a pregnant woman has not taken enough folate, some of the body parts will not grow well, they will develop a condition called ‘Spina Bifida’ where a child’s backbone is very weak and will fail to walk, some tradition think it is a curse but it is because of poor nutrition.” Said Busiri.

“Low birth weight can also happen when nutrition is poor in pregnant women and such babies are prone to illnesses, they grow weak and they rarely survive.” He added.

“If the woman is not eating well, she will be diagnosed with anaemia, very low blood and they sometimes collapse, they also experience a lot of weaknesses because in pregnancy the way the body responds to diseases becomes weaker.”

Busiri went ahead to advise pregnant women on the effects of poor nutrition to themselves and their unborn babies.

“My advice will even start before pregnancy and I think all medical experts will agree with me that best pregnancy outcomes are based on how the woman was prepared before the pregnancy.”

“All these nutrition issues that we are talking about should start even before the woman gets pregnant and that is why it is very important to plan pregnancy,” he said.

“When a woman is pregnant, it’s good to have family support, pregnant women should be given special treatment and in many cases if there is a baby, they should have their nutrition needs taken care of first then the other family members can follow in case there are no resources.” Busiri concluded.

Editor Note: This article was written by Winnie Eric, one of the journalists trained by Eye Radio under UNICEF’s Communication for Development project. Eye Media thanks UNICEF for the support offered in order to have this successful basic journalism training on content production to promote integrated life-saving messages and prevention of undernutrition.