From a mobile app to Facebook groups, Kenyan women are organizing around breastfeeding

Nairobi, Kenya (Minority Africa) — In 2019, 31-year-old Kenyan Ann Mogaka returned to work six months after having her daughter. Given its benefits, Mogaka wanted to continue breastfeeding her child. Pumping presented a solution.

However, as a first-time mother, Mogaka did not have a pumping schedule. “I didn’t know I had to have [had] a pumping schedule while I was on maternity leave, so [when it was time to resume work], I didn’t have a lot of milk,” she says. “After going back to work, I would pump one side as the baby would be breastfeeding on the other in the evening. It was difficult.”

 Luckily, two years later, when Mogaka gave birth to her second child she came across a Facebook post about Nyonyesha – a mobile application designed to educate women about breastfeeding – and decided to try it. The app sends notifications every two hours to remind mothers to pump. According to Mogaka, the app made pumping easier for her as she was able to pump at regular intervals, resulting in a consistent supply of breastmilk.

“When I was on three months maternity leave, the alerts would remind me to pump regularly, so I had a lot of milk stored in the fridge for the baby to use by the time I went back to work,” she says. 

Nyonyesha is an innovation by award-winning Kenyan journalist Janet Otieno, whose breastfeeding story resonates with that of Mogaka and many other women, especially first-time mothers. Although Otieno had been shown what to do at the antenatal clinic, breastfeeding a real baby was not as simple as the demonstrations indicated. “I couldn’t breastfeed, so the baby [who was preterm and birthed at seven months] kept crying. I felt helpless and emotionally drained,” shesays.

Otieno did not want to use formula because the clinic had stressed the importance of breastmilk, especially since it helps with the baby’s brain development. So, she tried and failed again. Eventually, she called a friend who was a pediatrician for help.

The doctor came and diagnosed the problem: incorrect breastfeeding position. Once the problem had been identified, she started breastfeeding effortlessly. However, the experience left a deep impression on her. 

Several years later, in October 2020, this experience inspired her to create Nyonyesha, a Swahili term for breastfeeding. Primarily for Kenyan women, the content of the app is in English, Swahili and sign language and has over a hundred downloads. With enough funding, she hopes to expand it to women across the African continent. Otieno is not looking to make money from it; she explains that the app is free because she wants many women to have access to it. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) stipulates that a mother should breastfeed a child exclusively on breast milk for the first six months. It also explains that if breastfeeding is scaled up to near-universal levels, about 820,000 children’s lives would be saved. 

Working mothers who want to breastfeed exclusively have to pump regularly. Josephine Munene, the co-founder and honorary secretary of the Kenya Association of Breastfeeding (KAB), explains the importance of doing this. “The way lactation works is you need to remove milk to make milk. I tell working mothers to start pumping four weeks before going back to work, so they have milk put away.”

 Along with the pumping schedule, Mogaka also enjoyed other features on Nyonyesha, such as articles and videos about breastfeeding. “I found the articles on how to store milk after breastfeeding quite helpful. I even recommended the app to one of my friends who was having problems breastfeeding.”

Michelle Gachuhi, a 29-year-old  tech-savvy Kenyan mum, who recently interacted with the app, also found the articles interesting. “As a first-time mother, the articles grabbed my attention, like the one about how husbands can support breastfeeding mothers,” she says. 

Nyonyesha is the first Kenyan app targeting breastfeeding mothers, but digital platforms with the same idea have been around much longer. In 2015, Thitu Kariba Garang, a stay-at-home mum and counseling psychologist, created The Pregnant and Nursing Mums Support  group on Facebook.

“When I was expecting, I would share the experience with my Facebook friends. Then as my posts became popular, some of my friends who were also pregnant suggested we create a Facebook group to support one other,” she tells Minority Africa.

 The group has about 400,000 members and has been running for eight years. Over the years, the group’s activities have expanded from providing emotional support to one another to contributing money to help poor mothers around the country. 

Facebook groups like Garang’s help encourage women to breastfeed exclusively despite the challenges. The discussions are the most popular feature of the Facebook page, Garang explains, adding that “most of the questions are about the first hundred days of a baby’s life, which includes breastfeeding.” 

In the beginning, Garang would share with the group the information she received from her doula (midwife). But over the years, she has also brought experts to speak to the mothers. Members are also free to post their opinions, but incorrect information is immediately flagged by Garang and the other moderators and corrected. This ensures members always get the right information. 

Josephine Munene says the most common challenge is the lack of (or little) breastmilk, which can deter women from breastfeeding exclusively. “Most mothers don’t know what to expect when they start breastfeeding; it is not just about giving birth and putting the baby on the breast,” says Munene, adding that “mothers need knowledge and support.”

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Freida Kimanga, a 35-year-old mother who lives in Nairobi and is a member of The Pregnant and Nursing Mums Support group, posted about the misconceptions surrounding the breastfeeding of twins. “When I was pregnant, I found out I was having twin boys. Some friends scared me by saying I would have to spend about $500 a month to buy baby formula for them because I would not be able to produce enough milk.” 

After giving birth, she had problems breastfeeding in the hospital, but that changed when she left. “At home, my mother and sister helped with the children, so I was not stressed. I also ate a balanced diet – with lots of vegetables and drank a lot of water. I pumped regularly and was able to breastfeed for 7.5 months.” 

This story resonated with so many women that her Facebook post received about 500 comments and over 1000 likes. In addition, breastfeeding mothers often message her directly to ask for advice. This is the kind of support digital forums like Nyonyesha and Pregnant and Nursing Mums promise. 

After giving birth, Esther Njoroge, a 26-year-old mother who lives in Kirinyaga county, a fairly urban area, which is only two hours drive from Nairobi, found and joined a WhatsApp group of mothers who had given birth around the same time. “I noticed my baby was not sleeping through the night, so I went to the group to get advice from other mothers,” she says. “They said the baby was not getting enough milk and told me the food I could eat to improve the milk supply. I did it and managed to breastfeed exclusively for seven months.” 

Facebook groups have been encouraging women to breastfeed exclusively for some time and now, Nyonyesha has added its voice to the conversation. Otieno has plans to spread Nyonyesha’s content to even more people, especially those without smartphones. “I would like to work with mobile telecom service to reach women in rural areas using short messages,” she says. She hopes to create Nyonyesha 2.0, a plan to partner with like-minded institutions or individuals to develop the app further so that it can reach these women.

Mogaka is happy she used the app. “I was able to have a regular supply of milk because I used the pumping schedule. Also, the articles on the app demystified myths about breastfeeding. For instance, my mother would insist that I give the baby water and I was able to confidently say no because I had read articles that supported exclusive breastfeeding.”

Today, Mogaka’s daughter is one year old and the mother has continued using the app for months to wean. “When I started weaning, I thought the baby would enjoy pureed mango, avocado and banana but she refused to eat.” Luckily, the app had articles that helped diagnose the problem and information on how often to wean and how much food to give, she says.

Edited by PK Cross, Khadija Sanusi, Uzoma Ihejirika, and Caleb Okereke.