HÀ NỘI — The health ministry on Wednesday released “The National Guideline on Nutrition for Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers” to improve women’s health and thus the physical stature of Vietnamese people.

The guideline aims to provide information and nutritional knowledge to doctors, midwives and nurses so that they can give appropriate advice and care to pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. The information will also be useful to scientists and teachers in the fields of obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics, nutrition as well as to research students.

“The guideline, issued and implemented with support from Abbott Vietnam, is one of the practical steps the health ministry has taken for effective implementation of the National Strategy on Nutrition for the 2011-20 period and vision till 2030. It has been approved by the Prime Minister,” said Nguyễn Đức Vinh, director of health ministry’s maternal and child health department.

The health ministry will also provide training to health professors to help improve the nutritional health of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.

“The guideline will be helpful and will play an important role for doctors and healthcare practitioners in daily consultations and in providing care for pregnant women, lactating mothers and infants. It marks a milestone in improving the nutritional health of Vietnamese children in the long term,” said Douglas Kuo, general manager of Abbott Vietnam.

The guideline hopes to address the problem of lack of proper awareness and knowledge about nutrition for pregnant women and lactating mothers, which leads to unsuitable habits. 

In recent years, the country’s nutritional levels have improved, on the whole. Việt Nam has been recognised internationally as one of the countries that achieved the Millennium Development Goals, which include targets relating to maternal and child health. Particularly, the country has recorded a continuous, sustainable drop in the cases of acute and chronic malnutrition among children under five years of age.

However, Việt Nam still faces many challenges: the number of chronic diseases relating to nutrition, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, metabolic disorder, has the tendency to increase; and many pregnant women and lactating mothers are still not getting sufficient nutritional information. — VNS