Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health
- Achieving better maternal and newborn outcomes: coherent strategy and pragmatic, tailored implementation
Maternal and newborn health program effort needs to: shift from mere contact to the actual content or substance of care; respond better to local context; ensure delivery of all key interventions needed during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postnatally; and actively monitor performance to manage and improve programs.
- Forest cover associated with improved child health and nutrition: evidence from the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey and satellite data
In Malawi, net forest cover loss over time is associated with reduced dietary diversity and consumption of vitamin A-rich foods among children. Greater forest cover is associated with reduced risk of diarrheal disease. These preliminary findings suggest that protection of natural ecosystems could play an important role in improving health outcomes.
- Operations research to add postpartum family planning to maternal and neonatal health to improve birth spacing in Sylhet District, Bangladesh
This quasi-experimental study integrated family planning, including the Lactational Amenorrhea Method, into community-based maternal and newborn health care and encouraged transition to other modern methods after 6 months to increase birth-to-pregnancy intervals. Community-based distribution of pills, condoms, and injectables, and referral for clinical methods, was added to meet women's demand.
- Reducing child global undernutrition at scale in Sofala Province, Mozambique, using Care Group Volunteers to communicate health messages to mothers
Care Group peer-to-peer behavior change communication improved child undernutrition at scale in rural Mozambique and has the potential to substantially reduce under-5 mortality in priority countries at very low cost.
- Chlorhexidine for umbilical cord care: game-changer for newborn survival?
A simple technology with potential to prevent 500,000 global neonatal deaths annually.
- Meeting the community halfway to reduce maternal deaths? Evidence from a community-based maternal death review in Uttar Pradesh, India
Even in the face of vigorous commitment to improving maternal health services in India, inadequate staffing, supplies, and equipment at health facilities, as well as transportation costs and delays in referral, appear to contribute to a substantial proportion of maternal deaths in a representative district in Uttar Pradesh.