Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Perinatal depression affects 20-30% women in low-income countries and is a known risk factor for impaired child development. Siham Sikander of Human Development Research Foundation, Pakistan and Joanna Maselko of Duke University, USA will examine if the perinatal depression intervention “Thinking Healthy Programme” leads to improved developmental outcomes in offspring.

The integrated community-based early childhood development initiative

The JiVitA Project  in Bangladesh will examine the effects of weekly maternal vitamin A supplementation during pregnancy along with newborn vitamin A supplementation  on cognitive development of children at 8 years of age. The findings will help to elucidate the preventable effects of micronutrient deficiencies during critical early stages of neurobehavioral development on cognition of children at ages when they usually start school.