Empowering Palestinian Mothers to Protect the Bodies and Brains of Their Newborns and Infants

Evidence on infant physical care, stimulation and maternal mental health is irrefutable for optimal infant development and wellbeing. However an integrated, standardized and evidence-based package addressing these elements is lacking. World Vision trains Community Health Workers to deliver Timed and Targeted Counselling (ttC) for pregnant women; a home-visitor model providing timely messages about physical health care of mother and child. Working in West Bank/Gaza this project will research the effectiveness of an evidence-informed integrated service package-Enhanced ttC (EttC)-expanding ttC to holistically meet physical, mental, cognitive and socio-emotional needs of newborns and mothers. A 2-stage cluster randomized study hypothesizes that EttC will reduce postnatal depression, increase physical, social and emotional development of infants in their first 12 months and position EttC for scale up; creating a service package for infant bodies and brains to reach their fullest potential.