Enabling Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) as Community-Level First Responders to Advance Maternal and Neonatal Survival in Northern Nigeria

Globally, Nigeria contributes the greatest number of maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirths. In northern Nigeria, most births occur at home and are often assisted by untrained traditional birth attendants (TBAs). To ultimately accelerate impacts on maternal and newborn survival, we aimed to improve the knowledge, skills, and confidence of TBAs.

Improving Newborn Health Outcomes in Yemen through Community-Led Kangaroo Mother Care

The Systems, Health and Resiliency Project (SHARP) implemented a pilot program called My Community, My Home (MCMH) in the Al-Maqatera District of Lahj Governorate in Yemen to improve newborn health outcomes through community-led kangaroo mother care (KMC). The program aimed to address the significant issue of newborn mortality in Yemen, which is estimated at 27 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Social Norms around Delays in Disclosing Pregnancy and Implications for Antenatal Care Initiation: A Qualitative Study among Ugandan Women

Delaying to disclose pregnancy among one's social networks can reduce individuals' ability to access social support, which facilitates perinatal care access. There are limited in-depth and contextualized data exploring social norms around delays in pregnancy disclosure, their reasons, and the potential impact on antenatal care seeking in Uganda. By better understanding the factors influencing this practice, we can account for this behavior when designing interventions to ensure pregnant individuals initiate antenatal care early enough in pregnancy to optimize health. Therefore, we collected qualitative data about antenatal care decision-making from Ugandan pregnant women at their first antenatal care visit and norms around disclosing pregnancy.

Community-Based Peer Support to Mitigate Social Isolation and Stigma of Adolescent Motherhood in Harare, Zimbabwe

Adolescent mothers often feel isolated, lacking coping skills, resources, social support, and educational opportunities. Unless addressed, these circumstances may have negative consequences on their mental health. To inform the development of a peer-support intervention to mitigate social isolation and stigma of adolescent motherhood, focus groups were conducted from October to December 2018 with adolescent mothers aged 14–18 years, community health workers (CHWs), and key community stakeholders (KCSs) in Harare, Zimbabwe.