Ulirang Ina sa City of Naga

Breaking free from the vicious cycle of malnutrition, the City of Naga, through its nutrition committee made an astounding improvement in their undernutrition situation by dropping their prevalence rate from 6.8% in 2014 to 2.6% in 2016 via a simple yet very effective innovative program entitled “Ulirang Ina sa Naga Program”.

Anchored on the prevention of malnutrition and ensuring that both children and their mothers are well taken care of during the first 1000 days of life, the program slowly but surely reduced the undernutrition in the LGU. As an added value, it also empowers women to be better mothers.

This is a step-by-step program that guides mothers from pre-natal to post-natal care and proper child nutrition and caring practices. It is set apart from the usual first 1000 days service package through the integration of a strong monitoring system built upon the city and barangay local nutrition committees, where mothers who have elected to be part of the program are closely monitored by health and nutrition workers. The City Nutrition Committee also allocated a budget to reward mothers who could successfully follow prescribed steps.

In a span of three years, the program was able to inculcate good nutrition practices during the first two years of life, help mothers be more aware and benefit from health services for her and her child and encourage mothers to participate in nutrition education classes. Other than the decrease in malnutrition rate, the city has also seen an increase in their exclusive breastfeeding prevalence from 45% in 2014 to 68% in 2016.  Naga CNPC Dolorita T. Nietes

nnc.gov.ph