Akosua Comfort a four-year-old girl who was born with one leg longer than the other, has finally received support from Vodafone Healthline, to correct the anomaly and afford her quality life.
According to Akosua’s family, residents of Ada Akrofenso in the Eastern Region, they noticed the anomaly after her birth but because of their economic status as peasant farmers, they could not raise the estimated funds for a surgery to correct the deformity.
The mother recounted that on several occasions the little girl returned home from school crying that the colleagues are making mockery of her in school that her one leg is longer than the other. She indicated that such a deformity is not in their family so she was disturbed about the condition of the little girl and always prayed to God to bring them a helper to support in healing Akosua of her condition.
“Fortunately for us, we were home one day when Akosua’s class teacher informed us that Vodafone has a project that helps people with challenges like ours and so she will reach out to them on our behalf and indeed she called Vodafone who also came to our help. I will like to thank Vodafone Ghana for rescuing my daughter and giving her life to be able to further her education, may God bless Vodafone Healthline and increase them in whatever they do,” Akosua’s mother said.
In its fourth episode of the ninth season, Dr. Abba Folson and Dr. Kwekuma Yalley enlightened women on implications of tying or putting on tummy belt soon after birth to control belly fat.
General Practitioner, Dr. Kwekuma Yalley, emphasized that tying or putting on the stomach belt only gives instantaneous flat tummy for the purpose of dressing but ones the belt is removed, the tummy comes back to normal hence it is not a healthy practice.
However, Dr. Folson was of a slightly different opinion, indicating that though putting on the belt do not conclusively produce a flat tummy, it helps to maintain tone of the muscle, burns fats and push the internal organs inward because it enables contraction of muscles.
“Scientifically, there is no evidence to show that it does that but when you tie your tummy after delivery it helps to maintain tone of the muscles, helps to burn fats and pushes internal organs inward. Note this, when you are exercising and you hold back your breath, you end up contracting your muscles and when you bind your tummy also inadvertently your tummy muscles are contracted and if you do it continuously after a while your muscles would move back in and not be lax,” she said.
She added that after birth, a room is created for internal organs to push forward but when contraction takes place continuously it pushes these internal organs back and prevents lax but a challenge that must be considered is the timing, as to how long should it take after birth before a woman embarks on such exercise.
Dr. Ama Kaki Ghunney, Specialist Obstetrician, indicated that there are about 150 things that make pregnancy delicate with the two commonest causes of maternal mortality in the country being bleeding and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. She urged pregnant women to take antenatal care seriously and be quick to report any uncommon feeling they experience to their doctor.
