Abstract

Reduction of Maternal Anemia and Low Birth Weight in Rural Remote Population through a Community Approach in Pakistan

Author(s):Muhammad Sarwat Mirza*, Inayat H. Thaver, Zulfiqar Ali Sario, Maryam Ashraf, Ahsan Maqbool Ahmad

The study of Anemia and Low Birth Weight among child bearing age women in districts Tharparker and Umerkot (located in eastern-south part of Pakistan), is one of the first unique research conducted for the region with reference to social circumstance, women's health, health services use, their obstetric history, dietary intake and physical activity during and prior to pregnancy. The activity that is supported under the NPPI initiative and with the technical oversight of UNICEF is indeed a commendable project in one of the most neglected areas of Sindh province. This is first prospective community based study in Pakistan that has researched the effect of Multiple Micro-nutrient (MMN) along with a set of composite community based interventions on the prevalence of anemia among pregnant women and incidence of low weight births in one of the remotest and highly food insecure regions of the country. The total study participants were 1,204 pregnant women (600 in intervention group and 604 in control group). The interventions were training of Community based workers on Nutrition guidelines for pregnant and lactating women and antenatal care, regular nutrition/ health education counseling of pregnant women and their families about diet, intake of multiple Micro-nutrients and health seeking behavior, provision of multiple micro-nutrient and de-worming tablets, measurement of weight and hemoglobin in each trimester of each enrolled pregnant women, and regular follow up. The major objective was to research and assess interventions for reducing low birth weight and maternal anemia with community based interventions including intake of Multiple Micro-nutrient, improving diet during pregnancy, inbuilt components of an integrated approach and prospects of scalability in rural communities.

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