Child Swaddling or Back Wrapping During Street Trading

Abstract

The study is premised on social responsibility and social epidemiological theories and examined the exposure of back-wrapped babies to health risk during street trading. Data were collected using structured face-to-face interviews and snowballing techniques among 228 Street trading women (with children aged ≤ 11 months), in one local government area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Data analyses involved univariate and multivariate methods. The results show that 58.3% of women interviewed wrapped their babies at their back while trading on the streets, ≥80% were not aware of any campaign against baby back-wrapping, 35% viewed baby back-wrapping as medicinal for the baby, and as traditional practice (59.2%). The multivariate analysis revealed that children wrapped while trading on the street are at higher risk of exposure to illness than those not back wrapped (OR=1.778, p=0.042). The authors suggested media campaign against back-wrapping baby while trading on the street to reduce exposure to diseases, mortalities and possibly achievement of sustainable development goal (SDG-3).

Women’s mass media exposure and maternal health awareness in Ota, Nigeria

“…(Odesanya et al, 2015). This is critical to the achievement of SDGs-3 of promoting healthy lives and wellbeing for all at all ages and especially the agenda to reduce the global maternal mortality and preventable deaths of newborns (Amoo, Ajayi et al, 2020. Specifically, the results from this study indicated that since most participants were exposed to the internet, and the variables are positively related, efforts to enhance maternal health awareness by various agents of sustainable development either mass communication professionals, medical practitioners, government health extension workers or other stakeholders, could then statistically rely on the utilization of the internet as a principal medium of communicating maternal health messages in the study location in particular and by extension, Nigeria as a whole. This finding is in tandem with the assertion from Singh (2018) that as society gets more computerized, significant changes in behavioural manifestations appear in the individual experiences regarding knowledge gain.…”

“…Public health concern on maternal mortality and morbidity has not dwindled and is becoming increasingly parameter for measuring societal performance (Amoo, Ajayi, Olarewaju, Olawande & Olawole-Isaac, 2020). Maternal mortality reflects the capacity of health systems, specifically it is a test of effectiveness of measures to address the pregnancy complications and challenges of childbirth.…”

“…Maternal mortality reflects the capacity of health systems, specifically it is a test of effectiveness of measures to address the pregnancy complications and challenges of childbirth. It could also be a measure of nutrition adequacy and reproductive rights of women especially during pregnancy (Amoo, Ajayi, Olarewaju, Olawande & Olawole-Isaac, 2020;El-Kak et al, 2020). In a bid to tackle varying maternal health concerns, Nigerian government and other nations across the globe had resorted to the utilization of communication campaigns to reach out to the public with the aim of influencing their engagement in desired health practices.…”

“…In a bid to tackle varying maternal health concerns, Nigerian government and other nations across the globe had resorted to the utilization of communication campaigns to reach out to the public with the aim of influencing their engagement in desired health practices. Specifically, several governments have resorted to the use of communication campaigns through the mass media to reach out to the people, with the main purpose of influencing them into carrying out desired healthy practices (Amoo et al 2020;Bhattacharyya, 2020;Lariscy, 2020).…”

“…The mass media is the key component of a global strategy for sustainable health issues (Ogunjuyigbe & Adepoju, 2014). The mass media play vital roles in every society as they shape culture, influence politics, affect people's attitude, play important roles by raising concerns in health especially as it relates to women, children as well as in the contemporary business world (Amoo, Ajayi, Olarewaju, Olawande & Olawole-Isaac, 2020). According to the Baseline Survey that guided this paper, 35% of mothers failed to continue breastfeeding their babies for the recommended two years.…”