Women need adequate support to have a healthy first 1,000 days. This brief explains the critical roles that birth doulas and lactation consultants play in improving outcomes and reducing racial and ethnic disparities during birth and the postpartum period.
In 2021, The Lancet published the latest Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition, including three new papers that build upon findings from the previous 2008 and 2013 Series, which established an evidence-based global agenda for tackling undernutrition over the past decade. The newest series highlights how the evidence base for nutrition, health, food systems, social protection, and water, sanitation and hygiene interventions have evolved since the 2013 Series and identifies the priority actions needed to regain and accelerate progress within the next decade.
A recording of the virtual event The Looming Threat of Malnutrition in the COVID-19 Pandemic hosted by 1,000 Days, Bread for the World and InterAction.
Speakers included:
(Moderator) Jenny Marron, Director for Public Policy and Government Relations, InterAction
Congressman Jim McGovern
Skye Fitzgerald, Emmy and Oscar nominated documentary filmmaker
Karin Lapping, Nutrition Technical Director at FHI Solutions
Asma Lateef, Director at Bread for the World Institute
Shawn K Baker, Chief Nutritionist at USAID
There are four essential actions we can take now to prevent children from dying of severe malnutrition: Supply all pregnant women with prenatal vitamins, support breastfeeding mothers, continue large-scale vitamin A supplementation, and expand coverage of specialized foods for treatment. This brief tells a personal story of how a US Government-funded Power 4 nutrition intervention made a difference in the lives of mothers and their babies.
Find an unbranded version here.
In an average year, 3.1 million children die from malnutrition – more people than the population of the city of Chicago. This year, COVID-19-related disruptions to food and health systems are causing rates of malnutrition to rise substantially. Experts are especially concerned about a dramatic rise in a dangerous form of malnutrition called wasting, which increases a child’s chances of dying by up to 11 times.
Find an unbranded version here.
We conducted multiple, in-depth interviews with four low-income women in Texas throughout their pregnancy and postpartum period. Each of these women, who vary in age, race, marital status, educational attainment and occupation, have one key thing in common: they do not have access to paid family and medical leave.
Learn more about what makes paid leave a public health imperative.
We conducted multiple, in-depth interviews with four low-income women in Pennsylvania throughout their pregnancy and postpartum period. Each of these women, who vary in age, race, marital status, educational attainment and occupation, have one key thing in common: they do not have access to paid family and medical leave.
Learn more about what makes paid leave a public health imperative.
We conducted multiple, in-depth interviews with four low-income women in Kansas throughout their pregnancy and postpartum period. Each of these women, who vary in age, race, marital status, educational attainment and occupation, have one key thing in common: they do not have access to paid family and medical leave.
Learn more about what makes paid leave a public health imperative.
We conducted multiple, in-depth interviews with four low-income women in Georgia throughout their pregnancy and postpartum period. Each of these women, who vary in age, race, marital status, educational attainment and occupation, have one key thing in common: they do not have access to paid family and medical leave.
Learn more about what makes paid leave a public health imperative.
Our latest report, Qualitative Paid Leave Report: Furthering Our Case for Paid Leave in the United States, is based on a study we commissioned to examine how lack of paid leave affects the well-being of new mothers and their babies, particularly women working in low-wage jobs, and to amplify the experiences of low-wage working mothers in their own words. By interviewing and surveying 20 women in five states that did not require workers to have access to paid leave, we learned about how mothers navigate the experiences, demands and joys of motherhood.
For more about the report, our work with paid leave and how you can help, visit here.
