Cebu City – It is said that in the Philippines, celebrating Women’s Month is to highlight women’s achievements, raise awareness on gender equality, continue to empower them and recognize their contribution to society. The commemoration also is an opportunity to highlight the role of women in nutrition. Their role in nutrition is paramount to building the foundation of good health and ensure a better future of her child.

We all live in a society where women play a crucial role in shaping the children of tomorrow. Not just by virtue of growth and development but by life lessons brought about by shaping healthy and nutritious habits for a healthier future. Women are also mothers, and it is the mother where the nutritious living of a child starts. In other words, if a mother/woman is healthy, then it is most often that she will also have healthy children and family members.

The healthy and nutritious habit basically starts from the mother with the support of the father. And this happens in the first 1000 days of the child’s life (from conception to the first 2 years). The interventions in the first 270 days that covers pregnancy period centered on the mother, which ought to be provided and nurtured not only for herself and the baby in her womb. Without the mother, a child’s nutrition is compromised, and that could potentially affect her child’s growth and development, education and better productivity in the future.

Celebrating Women’s Month is to remind ourselves of the accomplishments of women throughout the years especially in nourishing her child, and one of those accomplishment is through these little victories within the first 1000 days and taking the time to exclusively breastfeed their babies. We wouldn’t we here right now if it weren’t for our mothers. The women particularly mothers deserve more credit and support for all. // NO I Gab Flores, RND