Maternal & Child Health

Beginning in 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partnered with the Government of Bihar, India to launch the Ananya program to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health outcomes by addressing barriers to the adoption, coverage, quality, equity and health impact of select interventions such as strengthening frontline worker service delivery; social and behavior change communications; layering of health, nutrition and sanitation into women’s self help groups (SHGs); and quality improvement in maternal and newborn care at primary health care facilities eventually applied across the state’s population of 104 million. During my time is Bihar, I was privileged to accompany local care workers as they visited expecting mothers to provide education on nutrition, vaccinations and all aspects of pre-natal care, planning for delivery and family planning. In a region where female infanticide remains an issue, the value and importance of girls is also key topic of education. We also visited mothers that had just given birth all the way to the time when their babies began on solid food. This project was a collaboration with PCI India to capture the activities significant impact of this multi-faceted program in Bihar, India.