Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
This supplement, published in Health Policy and Planning (HPP), presents a comprehensive multi-country analysis of the changes in newborn care and survival from 2000-2010 and 5 detailed country case studies in order to better understand the process of taking solutions to scale and how to accelerate progress for reduction of mortality and morbidity. It was… Read more
Neonatal mortality accounts for 43% of global under-five deaths and is decreasing more slowly than maternal or child mortality. Donor funding has increased for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH), but no analysis to date has disaggregated aid for newborns. The authors of this paper evaluated if and how aid flows for newborn care can… Read more
Each year, more than 1 in 10 of the world’s babies are born preterm, resulting in 15 million babies born too soon. Since 2012 there have been increased awareness of the problem, through new data and evidence, global partnership and country champions. Actions to improve care would save hundreds of thousands of babies born too… Read more
Poverty, food insecurity, ignorance, lack of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices, heavy burden of infectious illnesses, and poor hygiene and sanitation are factors responsible for the high levels of maternal and child undernutrition in developing countries. These factors can be controlled or removed by scaling up direct nutrition interventions and eliminating the root… Read more
The objective of this systematic review was to determine the effectiveness of school feeding programmes in improving physical and psychosocial health for disadvantaged school pupils. Early malnutrition and/or micronutrient deficiencies can negatively affect many aspects of child health and development. School feeding programmes are designed to provide food to hungry children and to improve their… Read more
This review assessed the effects of intermittent iron supplementation, alone or in combination with other vitamins and minerals, on nutritional and developmental outcomes in children from birth to 12 years of age compared with a placebo, no intervention or daily supplementation. It found that intermittent iron supplementation is efficacious to improve haemoglobin concentrations and reduce… Read more
Iodine deficiency has been found to result in mental retardation in children as well as an enlarged thyroid gland (goitre) and sometimes deficiencies in thyroid hormones in people of all ages. This review focuses on 26 studies with a comparison group of iodine supplementation in children. The quality of the studies was found to be… Read more
This review assesses the efficacy and safety of home based management of SAM using therapeutic nutrition products or ready to use therapeutic foods (RUTF); and compares the efficacy of these products in comparison with F-100 (the standard facility based treatment) and home-based diet. The results indicate that systematic reviews and Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) showed… Read more
This recent systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effect of peer support on duration of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Eleven randomized controlled trials utilising peer support in LMIC were reviewed and assessed for quality. Peer support was shown to significantly decrease the risk of discontinuing exclusive breastfeeding compared to the… Read more
The objective of this paper was to assess the contribution of the timing of initiation of breastfeeding to any impact. Based on data from Ghana, the results show that the risk of neonatal death was four times higher in children who were not exclusively breastfed (given milk-based fluids or solids in addition to breast milk)…. Read more
This review looks at the evidence for multiple micronutrient supplementation of pregnant women and the effect on birth outcomes. Micronutrient deficiencies are known to interact and a greater effect may be achieved by multiple supplementation rather than single nutrient supplementation, although interactions may also lead to poor absorption of some of the nutrients. Overall, the… Read more