Doha: The Ministry of Public Health is operating to build and prepare the capacities of breastfeeding counselors in the State of Qatar within the framework of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.
In this context, the Ministry of Health organized a week-long workshop to train health practitioners specialized in providing advice on the skills necessary to support mothers and their children in optimal breastfeeding.
The workshop, which was attended by specialists from the Ministry of Public Health, Womens Health and Research Center, Al Wakra Hospital, Al Khor Hospital, the Primary Health Care Corporation, and Sidra Medicine, intended to support, encourage and protect breastfeeding through training health care providers on the importance of methods of providing advice and support to mothers regarding breastfeeding.
During the event, competencies of six trainers obtained a certificate (training of trainers), in addition to training 24 participants from health care providers in the field of breastfeeding.
Practical experiments were conducted for the participants through cooperation with Itqan - Clinical Simulation and Innovation Centre, which plays a fundamental and educational role with the aim of improving the quality of care through the utilization of existing state-of-the-art technology for medical care and medical training for current and future healthcare professionals in the state of Qatar.
The workshop featured presentations, panel discussions, in addition to field trips for the participants to Women's Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) to apply the field training, where new mothers were interviewed and given the essential counselling and information on breastfeeding and offering the required support for them.
Dr. Salah Abdulla Alyafei, Acting Manager Health promotion and Non-Communicable Diseases from the Ministry of Public Health said that the workshop comes as an essential part of the implementation of Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, which is launched by WHO and UNICEF in 1991 with the objective of safeguarding and bolstering the health of pregnant women and new mothers and their babies, noting that MoPH has embarked on implementing this initiative since 2016 with the aim of increasing the rate of exclusive breastfeeding for children under six months of age in the State of Qatar.
The workshop comes as completion for (training of trainers) training course for the practitioners operating in the field of providing counselling on breastfeeding organized by MoPH in 2019 in cooperation with WHO with the objective of building and preparing the capacities of Breastfeeding Counselors in the state of Qatar.
