Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
Maternal, Newborn and Child HealthThe perinatal mental health of women living in low- and lower-middle-income countries has only recently become the subject of research, in part because greater priority has been assigned to preventing pregnancy-related deaths. In addition, some have argued that in resource-constrained countries women are protected from experiencing perinatal mental problems through the influence of social and… Read more
Fatima[1] wears a yellow headscarf. She has bright eyes and a hopeful face. She is 17, has already been married for several years, had a child who died in infancy and has been divorced by her husband. She asks us if we are from India as she loves Bollywood films and wants to go to Mumbai…. Read more
This HEART talks video is a recording of a seminar held at DFID Whitehall on 28th October 2015 and is led by Professor van den Broek, head of the Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health (CMNH) at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She commences this presentation by stressing that the majority of the CMNH’s focus is on… Read more
Ayesha de Costa is an associate professor of Global Health and Senior Lecturer at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. She begins this lecture by noting the increasing importance of emergency obstetric care (EmOC) which can only work if it is of a high quality. EmOC should be able to provide: injectable antibiotics, injectable anticonvulsants, injectable oxytocics,… Read more
This briefing outlines the findings from operations research on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and early initiation. The study supports refinement of the infant and young child feeding (IYCF) strategy implemented by the Working to Improve Nutrition in Northern Nigeria (WINNN) programme. Summary of key recommendations: Strengthen messages on the water content in breastmilk. Integrate the showcasing of healthy… Read more
The India Health Report: Nutrition 2015 surveys the trends in maternal and child undernutrition in India. It looks at trends and disparities in these outcomes across geographical regions, socio-economic classes, and demographic groups. Tackling undernutrition and enabling improvements in the determinants of poor nutrition requires actions from multiple actors and sectors, and at multiple levels. In… Read more
In South Sudan the DFID Integrated Case Management Programme (ICCM) was initiated in April 2013 to complement the Global Fund home management of malaria for children under 5 years of age. It allows treatment of additional childhood illnesses including pneumonia, diarrhoea and severe acute malnutrition by community based distributors at the household level. This is… Read more
The market for menstrual hygiene products in developing countries is expanding rapidly, driven both by private demand and by public efforts to improve girls’ educational outcomes and women’s health and dignity. However, many women and girls cannot consistently afford the monthly cost of disposable menstrual products and revert to less hygienic solutions when facing cash… Read more
This four-page research summary highlights findings and recommendations from operations research into how to strengthen the implementation of an Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programme and to motivate behaviour change to improve IYCF practices in northern Nigeria. The research found that the IYCF programme was viewed positively by a range of beneficiaries and stakeholders,… Read more
DFID committed 12 million GBP to uplift frontline health workers’ salaries in Sierra Leone from 2010 to 2015 to support the implementation of the Free Healthcare Initiative (FHCI), launched in April 2010, which made health services free for pregnant women, children under five years of age and nursing mothers. Increasing the availability of frontline health… Read more
In this blog post Ireen Namakhoma discusses the importance of gender equity analysis within health research. In March 2015, the Global Health Action produced a special issue on Gender and Health. One of the articles which I co-authored together with colleagues from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Eleanor MacPherson, Sally Theobald and Esther Richards, highlights… Read more