Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Laeticia Celine Toe of Institut de Recherches en Sciences de la Santé in Burkina Faso will evaluate the nutritional content of traditionally-fermented millet porridge and its effects on gut health and inflammation in women of reproductive age in rural Burkina Faso. Maternal undernutrition affects child survival and is a major problem in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. This could be addressed by enhancing the nutritional content of common foods, which can be done by fermentation.

Syed Asad Ali and colleagues of Aga Khan University in Pakistan will perform a clinical trial to test whether traditional fermented pickles (achars) reduce gut inflammation and promote healthy bacterial growth in women of reproductive age from the poor rural Matiari district in Pakistan, to help reduce rates of childhood stunting. Key drivers of childhood stunting are poor maternal health and nutrition, which could be improved by regular ingestion of fermented foods, although this has never been tested in a real-life setting.

Khurshid Talukder from the Centre for Woman and Child Health in Bangladesh will scale-up their proven approach using a package of 11 service interventions, including antenatal counselling and supportive care during labor, to reduce the cesarean section rate across Bangladesh. Bangladesh has an unnecessarily high cesarean section rate, which can have severe short and long-term health consequences for the mother and child. They developed a multi-service intervention to reduce the rate in their own hospital from 65% to 42% over two years.

Richard Bbaale of BanaPads Inc. in Uganda will recycle the discarded pseudo stems of banana plants to produce a non-toxic biopolymer and develop biodegradable sanitary pads for women and girls in underserved communities. Uganda produces roughly 10% of the world's bananas, which results in over 30 million tons per year of pseudo stem waste that is currently left to rot. They will extract the cellulose from the pseudo stem, which is the trunk of the banana plant that is cut off once the bananas have been picked, and use it to synthesize the biopolymer, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC).

Naba Dutta of RMIT University in Australia will develop disposable sanitary pads from natural, biodegradable polymers and agricultural byproducts such as cellulose to decrease cost and waste production and improve safety. Disposable pads are generally made from synthetic superabsorbent material that is expensive, has a high carbon footprint and is associated with an increased risk of diseases such as pelvic inflammatory disease.

Wei Lu of the University of Michigan in the U.S. will develop a reusable sanitary pad from a highly hydrophobic material containing carbon nanofibers, which clot blood, and microfolds that trap it in small pockets on the surface and can be cleaned without water. Disposable pads are expensive and generate substantial waste, making reusable products more attractive in low- and middle-income countries. However, these all require washing with lots of clean water, which is often problematic.

Jennifer Edwards of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom will develop a low-cost material impregnated with a photo-active biocidal compound for producing reusable sanitary products that can be self-cleaned in the sun without the need for water or detergent. Many women and girls in low- and middle-income countries are unable to afford single-use sanitary pads or to properly clean reusable pads, which leads to many of them suffering from chronic infections.

Yilan Ye from Tsinghua University in China will develop a small, self-adhesive menstrual product based on the suction cups of octopuses that can be fixed securely but reversibly inside the vaginal opening to block the flow of blood and enable its convenient disposal. They will design it specifically for women and girls in low- and middle-income countries by ensuring it is low-cost, re-usable, safe to apply, and does not require sanitation facilities.

This project will investigate the joint effects of exposure to particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide on maternal and child health. The joint and non-linear effects of these pollutants on maternal and child health will be evaluated, followed by those from wild fires and fires in the northern region.

In Brazil, the only information system that provides data on maternal morbidity is the Hospital Information System (SIH), but there are difficulties in implementing the criteria recommended by WHO and doubts about the quality of information. The project will validate the SIH against the Maternal Near Miss criteria and will build and validate an algorithm to identify severe maternal morbidity. As a product, it will develop an online indicator panel for the surveillance of maternal health to be used by SUS managers.