Nurturing the Nurturer: Promoting Adequate Nutrition for Pregnant Women in Sokoto State

Operated by The Neo Child Initiative, the ReachOut Project provides nutrional counseling and screening to parents and their children in underserved communities, free of charge. Since 2015, the ReachOut Project has supported 20,000 people across 10 communities in the state.

The GEANCO Foundation provides services to increase the health of pregnant women, including an anemia clinic that provides free antenatal care and a stipend to support women’s nutritional needs. Because many women prefer to give birth with traditional birth attendants (TBAs), they’ve trained hundreds of TBAs to provide safe and hygienic care to pregnant women. Post-training, TBAs are supervised by a nurse midwife for compliance and lab technicians test women for more serious complications. GEANCO built sanitary modular clinics, with beds and a delivery room, for two TBAs with plans for more.

FHI360 is an initiative, supported by grassroots and international partnerships, providing healthcare to Internally Displaced Peoples in four locations. The nourishment of pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as their children, is a main focus. The group disseminates information and provides nutrition counseling in both one-on-one and community support group settings. They also offer vitamins and micronutrient supplements to women and children and create safe breastfeeding spaces and safe spaces for women who have been victims of gender-based violence.

Child mortality is a global problem that can be reduced by increasing breastfeeding rates; however, many mothers are either under too much cultural pressure, need to work, or cannot lactate enough milk. Brazil has devised an education program to help mothers breastfeed and has also created milk banks, through which mothers can donate excess milk to mothers who cannot produce. Additionally, Brazil offers paid maternity leave for mothers who have time to breastfeed and provide better health for their bodies as well as their new babies.

Women volunteers with PHC Kara are going into the community to share important healthcare information with pregnant women, in an effort to improve maternal and infant mortality rates and health outcomes. The group has also received support and recognition from UNICEF’S Mama2Mama healthcare initiative and Rural Health Mission Nigeria, providing them with clean birth kits and other supplies to distribute to women.

The Milk Bank Nigeria provides donor breast milk for sick, low birth weight and premature babies in neonatal ICUs across the country to reduce mortality in preterm babies. The Milk Bank Nigeria launched in August 2022 and as of Decemeber the organization had registered four donors who had supplied 33 liters of breast milk.

Haiti suffered tremendous losses after the 2010 earthquake, exacerbating the devastation in an already impoverished country. In 2015, agriculture in Haiti is a growing business backed by the United States’ Feed the Future Initiative. Nourishment and health of mothers and babies has also improved with the encouragement of breastfeeding and sweet potatoes.

mDoc's Garden in a Box initiative distributes biodegradable seed kits to pregnant women identified through nutritional screening as having critical dietary gaps. The women are enrolled through a structured coaching and referral system in primary healthcare facilities and community outreach points, and receive ongoing support via a digital health platform. More than 300 women have been referred to the initiative and 96% collected a seed box.

The local non-profit Nuru Nigeria trained nearly 2,000 women in conflict-affected Adamawa State communities to cultivate backyard vegetable gardens, providing locals with a reliable food source. The program distributed drought-resistant, nutrient-rich seeds and taught women how to integrate balanced, vitamin-rich diets that address malnutrition. Women who participated in the program report measurable health improvements in their families, including fewer illnesses and healthier pregnancies.

The Bauchi State Impact Project aims to improve maternal and newborn health by training 100 people to become skilled birth attendants. Despite infrastructure challenges, the Project not only provides work and purpose to those trained, but also helps make childbirth safer by providing much-needed care.