Malusog Na Nanay, Malusog Na Anak (Healthy Mommy, Healthy Baby)!!! Investing in Filipino Women, Children and Families for Generations to Come. Part II

Below are recaps from sessions 1,2 and 3. :)

Our first session covered expectations of the training and the participants shared their wishes for their children.

Here a Houseparent processes the responses of the mothers and asks for clarification. 

Our group of the mothers in the Family Hall. 

The start of Session 2: Child Development and Attachment and Bonding. :)

The many toys purchased for the infants and children for stimulation thanks to USAID! 

Compiling baby bags. 

During our Child Developmental Milestones sessions we identified the key changes that take place in normal functioning infants at the specific growth cycles.  The girls participated in an activity where they identified the current stages of their children and the developmental milestones already achieved and ones to come in the near future.

Engaged in a discussion about someone special as an ice-breaker to attachment and bonding activity.

After lunch we began to discuss attachment.  We started with the following questions: Think about a person you are most fond of.  Why is that person special to you? What is your fondest memory of that person?  The girls really enjoyed answering these questions.  After our discussion we watched two videos about activities that improve insecure attachment and practiced a few.  Then we moved on to our hand painting bonding activity. This activity was important for the women to really focus on engaging with her child and having fun! 

A glimpse at our finger painting activity to promote bonding and closeness between mothers and children. 

Baby Footprints! 

Colors of the Filipino Flag. :)

Second time around. 

Giveaways for the mommy and baby! 

After the finger painting the mothers wrote how they envision their child in the future.  The pictures were then laminated and returned to the mothers.

Session 3: Nakakainis (I'm fed up!!!!), Stressors of Motherhood (Anger and Stress Management)

Yoga mats to practice our meditation and stress relieving. 

Scrapbooks for the mothers to capture the developmental milestones of the children. 

Here is a look at our room set up for our sessions.  We begin around the table and then go on to the hands-on activities.

It's Yoga time!!!!

Our third session focused on family planning. We talked about the importance of having sufficient time between pregnancies, poverty and reasons to put off having more children.  We also talked about contraceptives, natural and hormonal.  The girls learned what a condom is, how to apply it and how to make cycle beads to track their own fertility.

My counterpart for the MCH training, Grace, who is a social worker at the center. 

The girls practicing with the condoms and blowing them up to show their size. 

Cycle bead time! 

A cycle bead bracelet is broken up into four main sections: the first 6 beads represent your menstrual cycle, the next 6 beads represent the days after your menstrual cycle when you are least fertile (women), the next 12 beads represent the days when a woman is most fertile, followed by 6 premenstrual days when a woman is least fertile again.  

Finished products!!! 

Group picture!