Elsie Udoh and Temiloluwa Adegboyegun
In 2019, a study was conducted by Ogundiji and his team to explore the challenges faced by students who are nursing mothers and the support system available to them as they bear the weighty task of balancing academic activities and motherhood responsibilities. This study identified gaps in the provisions made available by Nigerian universities, a strict timetable and lack of inclusion facilities contribute to worsening the already demanding situation such students faced. The study concluded by recommending an inclusion approach through establishment of student support, early childhood educational development centres and counselling units in higher institutions to help address the issues.
The issue linger
However, five years down the line, the peculiar challenges students who also double as mothers face in Nigerian universities need urgent attention. Challenges of married students who are also mothers continue to be overlooked within tertiary institutions thus exacerbating their already existing struggles.
Across the continent, in the United Kingdom (UK) students with children are given family accommodation, childcare bursary and hardship funds. University-run nurseries are also provided with adequate information on local childcare options.
These provisions, made available by universities and the government, reveal an inclusive society that understands schooling can be combined with parenting and thus makes provisions to ensure that these demanding tasks are carried out successfully.
The struggles of students who are nursing mothers in LASU
In contrast, mothers in Nigerian schools continue to be hard-pressed in every way with little to no support systems available to accommodate their unique needs. While their peers focus solely on academics, these women juggle lectures, assignments, and exams alongside the demanding duties of parenting and this situation is not uncommon for student mothers at Lagos State University (LASU).
While sharing her experience balancing being a mother and a student, Okonnah Rebecca Modupe, a student with child in the Mass Communication department of LASU cried out, “Balancing my studies with motherhood for me has been quite challenging. It’s not a thing for the weak at all.”
Okonnah highlighted the challenges faced by students in her situations like financial constraints and poor grades. She echoed the need for external help in her word., “Being a mother and a student will affect you academically unless you get the right amount of help from elsewhere other than yourself.” However, getting this help can be mere wishful thinking for some students who lack the right amount of preparation and support to carry out their journey.
Okonnah relates how she took on this weighty responsibility. According to her, “It wasn’t easy caring for a newborn baby and attending lectures. I had to learn how to cope with my academics and care for my baby.” Frequent breastfeeding, baby cries, and the physical toll of carrying her child everywhere added layers of difficulty to her already demanding schedule.
Despite these challenges, however, Okonnah remains determined. “What actually helped me was determination and focus,” she says. “You must be hardworking and ready to work harder.” Okonnah’s story is not an isolated case as many other student in her shoes within the university share their plights.
Akano Rashidat Omotayo, an alumnus of LASU, also had to deal with being a student and a mother. Akano gained admission while her child was five years old and struggled to adapt to the new role of being a student.
Akano Rashidat Omotayo, Ex-student Mother
In her case, she lamented how being a student largely hindered her from being an active participant in her daughter’s life as she was absent most times when her child closed from school and was forced to leave the load of tending to her daughter to her grandma or class teacher. She noted exam periods as one of the most difficult times during her journey. “It is not easy to take care of your child, the home and engage in cooking and other activities while reading for exams.”
In addition to the physical and mental challenges faced by mothers who combine schooling, they are also exposed to some form of biases and stigma that could affect them more.
Perhaps for students like Akano, this was not the case as she explained that being a mother while still schooling earned her respect from her coursemates. Okonnah, on the other hand, lamented having to deal with certain biases. “At first, I was snubbed by many of my coursemates. However, this aspect was later rectified. I was also rebuked by one or two female lecturers. But it was done lightly in order not to make me feel bad. Also at the health centre, a nurse chastised me rather harshly.”
Are there enough support within LASU Community”?
Although largely left to navigate the path of parenting and academics themselves, Okonnah and Akano acknowledge some significant help that they benefited from the institution.
Okonnah lauded the efforts of the counselling unit in the varsity for the help it provided her as well as some staff of the institution. “I must give credence to the medical director of the health centre and Dr Saheed Adeyemo, who was then my course-level adviser as well as the head of the counselling unit.”
In Akano’s case, she said, “The only support I got from the university was from one of our lecturers in advertising (Dr. Khadijah Yusuf). I sell feminine care products which helped me financially as a student and a mother and she helped me to learn how to get my products to my targeted audience. The university also gave me a platform to engage with more students who patronised me.”
The help offered by LASU to these mothers is truly commendable and goes a long way to show how the institution staff seeks to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for all. However, some gaps exist that still need to be filled. This sentiment is shared by Okonnah who said, “I appreciate the aspect of being able to defer the semester and also the area of taking your baby to class. However, much still needs to be done.”
Providing an inclusive environment
Being a student and a mother can be demanding but support in various ways can aid the accomplishment of this herculean responsibility.
Dr Joseph Ayeni, Head of the Counselling Unit at LASU, acknowledged the absence of formal support systems for many in this shoe within the university. He also explained the judgement and misunderstanding that such students had to deal with among their peers and faculty. This can severely impact their mental health and academic performance. “People look at you as doing the right thing at the wrong time. They assume you lack self-management skills and proper life planning,” he said.
He suggested that to provide an inclusive environment for student mothers “the university should have a creche” with caregivers who can cater to the needs of the child while the mother attends classes.
Dr. Ayeni also highlighted the Counselling Unit’s role in offering emotional and practical support to students. “We help students with personal and life planning,” he said. “But students need to come to us for assistance.”
Reiterating the need for the establishment of creches Dr Atofojomo Omolade, a senior lecturer in the Mass Communication Department, said, “The institution can create a more supportive environment by having a creche within the school.”
Furthermore, Dr Olawunmi OniBuraimoh, an Associate Professor in the Department of English, recommended providing spaces where students with children can go to relieve themselves and take care of their babies.
Dr Olawunmi Oni Buraimoh, Associate Professor of English, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, LASU
“I think it is possible for institutions to create an environment where the students with children will feel safe. School planning and infrastructure should factor students with children challenges into the scheme of things. This can be done by creating a space where such students can go to take a break and feed their children. That’s part of providing a supportive environment,” she said.
Phot credit: Lasu today and Google
#Elsie udo and Temilade Adegboyegun, are Lagos state university campus journalists and 2024 campus Journalism fellows of Africa Foundation for Young Media Professionals sent this story from Lagos State university
