Effect of a Community-Based Kangaroo Mother Care Package on Neonatal Mortality among Preterm and Low Birthweight Infants in Rural Pakistan: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a low-cost intervention that can reduce neonatal mortality. However, its effectiveness in community settings in Pakistan is still unknown. We aimed to assess the affect of community KMC (cKMC) on neonatal mortality. The secondary outcomes included frequency of exclusive breastfeeding, weight gain, and incidence of possible serious bacterial infection (PSBI).

Using a Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) Survey to Prioritize Interventions to Impact Reproductive, Maternal, and Child Health-Seeking Behaviors in Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe 

In Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe, maternal mortality is 505 deaths per 100,000 live births. Approximately 42% of the population belongs to the Apostolic faith, which prohibits accessing modern health services, impacting women's health. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Mhuri/Imuli project, led by FHI 360, works with the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) to improve maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) in Manicaland Province. Mhuri/Imuli conducted a community-based lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) survey to assess reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH)-related care-seeking behaviors in Manicaland.

What Makes a Difference in a Maternal and Newborn Care Programme in Improving Maternal and Newborn Care Outcomes? Experiences from the West Nile Region, Uganda 

The West Nile region in Uganda has experienced some of the poorest maternal and newborn health (MNH) services. The bottlenecks to MNH services included weak governance and leadership structures, insufficient health workforce, poor infrastructure, presence of a high number of refugees, and barriers such as long distances to health facilities, negative cultural beliefs, gender relations, and widespread poverty. In 2018, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) with the Ministry of Health and partners implemented an integrated package of high-impact MNH interventions to tackle these challenges. Here, we document some of the best practices and key results of the MNH programme.

Every Newborn-INDEPTH Paradata Study: Improving Measurement of Stillbirths and Neonatal Deaths in Standardised Surveys 

More than 2.4 million neonatal deaths and 2.0 million stillbirths occur globally. In addition, 166 million births are unregistered, and significant data quality issues are faced when registered. Several aspects, including unclear questionnaire wording, context-specific understanding, omission, and potential misclassification, affect the data quality. Survey data can improve with survey methodology, industrial statistical methods, machine learning, and content and qualitative methods. We aimed to develop methods for enhancing the quality of household surveys for measuring stillbirths and neonatal deaths using paradata from the EveryNewborn-INDEPTH study (n=69,176), a randomised comparison of two household survey modules, Full Birth History with additional questions on pregnancy loss (FBH+) and Full Pregnancy History (FPH), for measuring stillbirths and neonatal deaths in five Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites (HDSS) in countries between July 2017 and August 2018.