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Objectives: To evaluate impact of postnatal health education for mothers on infant care and postnatal family planning practices in Nepal. Design: Randomised controlled trial with community follow up at 3 and 6 months post partum by interview. Initial household survey of study areas to identify all pregnant women to facilitate follow up. Setting: Main maternity hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Follow up in urban Kathmandu and a periurban area southwest of the city. Subjects: 540 mothers randomly allocated to one of four groups: health education immediately after birth and three months later (group A), at birth only (group B), at three months only (group C), or none (group D). Interventions: Structured baseline household questionnaire; 20 minute, one to one health education at birth and three months later. Main outcome measures: Duration of exclusive breast feeding, appropriate immunisation of infant, knowledge of oral rehydration solution and need to continue breast feeding in diarrhoea, knowledge of infant signs suggesting pneumonia, uptake of postnatal family planning. Results: Mothers in groups A and B (received health education at birth) were slightly more likely to use contraception at six months after birth compared with mothers in groups C and D (no health education at birth) (odds ratio 1.62, 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 2.5). There were no other significant differences between groups with regards to infant feeding, infant care, or immunisation. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the recommended practice of individual health education for postnatal mothers in poor communities has no impact on infant feeding, care, or immunisation, although uptake of family planning may be slightly enhanced. Key messages Health education is widely promoted in primary care, but there have been few rigorous evaluations of its impact, especially in developing countries A randomised controlled trial of postnatal individual health education for mothers given by trained female health workers showed no significant impact on maternal knowledge and practices of child care or on infant health outcomes, but there was a small improvement in uptake of family planning at six months after birth The efficacy of health education interventions that rely solely on giving people information to bring about a change in health behaviour is unproved; interventions should be evaluated before being implemented on a large scale Alternative strategies for health promotion in developing countries such as interactions within families, peer groups, or communities may be more effective but are costly and difficult to implement on a large scale

A pooled analysis of data from three studies in South Asia demonstrates an association between use of clean delivery kits during home births and reduced risk of neonatal mortality., Background Sepsis accounts for up to 15% of an estimated 3.3 million annual neonatal deaths globally. We used data collected from the control arms of three previously conducted cluster-randomised controlled trials in rural Bangladesh, India, and Nepal to examine the association between clean delivery kit use or clean delivery practices and neonatal mortality among home births. Methods and Findings Hierarchical, logistic regression models were used to explore the association between neonatal mortality and clean delivery kit use or clean delivery practices in 19,754 home births, controlling for confounders common to all study sites. We tested the association between kit use and neonatal mortality using a pooled dataset from all three sites and separately for each site. We then examined the association between individual clean delivery practices addressed in the contents of the kit (boiled blade and thread, plastic sheet, gloves, hand washing, and appropriate cord care) and neonatal mortality. Finally, we examined the combined association between mortality and four specific clean delivery practices (boiled blade and thread, hand washing, and plastic sheet). Using the pooled dataset, we found that kit use was associated with a relative reduction in neonatal mortality (adjusted odds ratio 0.52, 95% CI 0.39–0.68). While use of a clean delivery kit was not always accompanied by clean delivery practices, using a plastic sheet during delivery, a boiled blade to cut the cord, a boiled thread to tie the cord, and antiseptic to clean the umbilicus were each significantly associated with relative reductions in mortality, independently of kit use. Each additional clean delivery practice used was associated with a 16% relative reduction in neonatal mortality (odds ratio 0.84, 95% CI 0.77–0.92). Conclusions The appropriate use of a clean delivery kit or clean delivery practices is associated with relative reductions in neonatal mortality among home births in underserved, rural populations. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary, Editors' Summary Background Worldwide, around 3.3 million babies die in the first month of life, according to data for 2009 from the World Health Organization. Although the global neonatal mortality rate declined by 28% (from 33.2 deaths per 1,000 live births to 23.9) between 1990 and 2009, the proportion of child deaths that are now in the neonatal period has increased in all regions of the world, and currently stands at 41%. This figure is concerning and neonatal mortality remains a big obstacle to the international community in meeting the target of Millennium Development Goal 4—to reduce deaths in children under 5 years by two-thirds from 1990 levels by 2015. At least 15% of all neonatal deaths are due to sepsis (systematic bacterial infection) and an estimated 30%–40% of infections are transmitted at the time of birth. Therefore preventing infections through clean delivery practices is an important strategy to reduce sepsis-related deaths in newborns and can contribute to reducing the overall burden of neonatal deaths. Why Was This Study Done? In South Asia, around 65% of deliveries occur at home, without skilled birth attendants, making practices around clean delivery particularly challenging. To date, evidence on the impact of clean delivery kits and clean delivery practices on neonatal mortality or sepsis-related neonatal deaths from community-based studies is scarce. In this study the researchers explored the associations between neonatal mortality, the use of clean delivery kits, and individual clean delivery practices by using data from the control arms of three cluster-randomized controlled trials conducted among rural populations in South Asia. What Did the Researchers Do and Find? The researchers used data from almost 20,000 (19,754) home births available from the control arms of three community-based cluster-randomized trials conducted between 2000 and 2008 in India (n = 6,841, 18 clusters), Bangladesh (n = 7,041, five clusters), and Nepal (n = 5,872, five clusters). The researchers did not include data from other previously conducted trials on clean delivery practices because of the mix of designs used in these studies and limited their analysis to live-born singleton infants delivered at home in control areas, for whom data on birth kit use were available. The researchers conducted a separate analysis for each country on kit use and clean delivery practices and also analyzed the pooled dataset for all countries while controlling for factors about the mother, the pregnancy, the delivery, and the postnatal period. Using these methods, the researchers found that kits were used for 18.4% of home births in India, 18.4% in Bangladesh, and 5.7% in Nepal. Importantly, according to the pooled analysis, kit use was associated with a 48% relative reduction in neonatal mortality (odds ratio/chance 0.52), which was similar across all countries: 57% relative reduction in neonatal mortality in India, 32% in Bangladesh, and 49% in Nepal. Delivery practices were also important: in the pooled country analysis, the use of a boiled blade to cut the cord, antiseptic to clean the cord, a boiled thread to tie the cord, and a plastic sheet for a clean delivery surface were all associated with significant relative reductions in mortality after controlling for kit use and confounders common to all sites. The researchers found a 16% relative reduction in mortality with each additional clean delivery practice used. What Do These Findings Mean? These findings show that the appropriate use of a clean delivery kit and clean delivery practices could lead to substantial reductions in neonatal mortality among home births in poor rural communities with limited access to health care. The results also reinforce the importance of each clean delivery practice; hand washing and use of a sterilised blade, boiled thread, and plastic sheet were linearly associated with a reduction in neonatal deaths with each additional clean delivery practice used. Costs of such kits are low (US$0.44 in India, US$0.40 in Nepal, and US$0.27 in Bangladesh, although these costs may still be prohibitive for the poorest women), and given the impact of clean delivery kits and clean delivery practices in reducing neonatal practices, such strategies should be widely promoted by the international community. Additional Information Please access these websites via the online version of this summary at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001180. A recent PLoS Medicine study by Oestergaard et al. has the latest figures on neonatal mortality worldwide UNICEF has information about progress toward Millennium Development Goal 4 The United Nations Population Fund has more information about safe birth practices The EquiNam web site describes ongoing work on socioeconomic inequalities in newborn and maternal health in Asia and Africa by some of the study authors

BACKGROUND: In poor settings, where many births and neonatal deaths occur at home, prediction models of neonatal mortality in the general population can aid public-health policy-making. No such models are available in the international literature. We developed and validated a prediction model for neonatal mortality in the general population in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. METHODS: Using data (49 632 live births, 1742 neonatal deaths) from rural and urban surveillance sites in South Asia, we developed regression models to predict the risk of neonatal death with characteristics known at (i) the start of pregnancy, (ii) start of delivery and (iii) 5 minutes post partum. We assessed the models' discriminative ability by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), using cross-validation between sites. RESULTS: At the start of pregnancy, predictive ability was moderate {AUC 0.59 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58-0.61]} and predictors of neonatal death were low maternal education and economic status, short birth interval, primigravida, and young and advanced maternal age. At the start of delivery, predictive ability was considerably better [AUC 0.73 (95% CI 0.70-0.76)] and prematurity and multiple pregnancy were strong predictors of death. At 5 minutes post partum, predictive ability was good [AUC: 0.85 (95% CI 0.80-0.89)]; very strong predictors were multiple birth, prematurity and a poor condition of the infant at 5 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: We developed good performing prediction models for neonatal mortality. Neonatal deaths are highly concentrated in a small group of high-risk infants, even in poor settings in South Asia. Risk assessment, as supported by our models, can be used as a basis for improving community- and facility-based newborn care and prevention strategies in poor settings.

Summary Background Maternal and neonatal mortality rates remain high in many low-income and middle-income countries. Different approaches for the improvement of birth outcomes have been used in community-based interventions, with heterogeneous effects on survival. We assessed the effects of women's groups practising participatory learning and action, compared with usual care, on birth outcomes in low-resource settings. Methods We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials undertaken in Bangladesh, India, Malawi, and Nepal in which the effects of women's groups practising participatory learning and action were assessed to identify population-level predictors of effect on maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, and stillbirths. We also reviewed the cost-effectiveness of the women's group intervention and estimated its potential effect at scale in Countdown countries. Findings Seven trials (119 428 births) met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analyses of all trials showed that exposure to women's groups was associated with a 23% non-significant reduction in maternal mortality (odds ratio 0·77, 95% CI 0·48–1·23), a 20% reduction in neonatal mortality (0·80, 0·67–0·96), and a 7% non-significant reduction in stillbirths (0·93, 0·82–1·05), with high heterogeneity for maternal ( I 2 =64·0%, p=0·011) and neonatal results ( I 2 =73·2%, p=0·001). In the meta-regression analyses, the proportion of pregnant women in groups was linearly associated with reduction in both maternal and neonatal mortality (p=0·019 and p=0·009, respectively). A subgroup analysis of the four studies in which at least 30% of pregnant women participated in groups showed a 49% reduction in maternal mortality (0·51, 0·29–0·89) and a 33% reduction in neonatal mortality (0·67, 0·60–0·75). The intervention was cost effective by WHO standards and could save an estimated 283 000 newborn infants and 36 600 mothers per year if implemented in rural areas of 74 Countdown countries. Interpretation With the participation of at least a third of pregnant women and adequate population coverage, women's groups practising participatory learning and action are a cost-effective strategy to improve maternal and neonatal survival in low-resource settings. Funding Wellcome Trust, Ammalife, and National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for Birmingham and the Black Country programme.

Background Maternal, perinatal and neonatal mortality rates remain high in rural areas of developing countries. Most deliveries take place at home and care-seeking behaviour is often delayed. We report on a combined quantitative and qualitative study of care seeking obstacles and practices relating to perinatal illness in rural Makwanpur district, Nepal, with particular emphasis on consultation strategies. Methods The analysis included a survey of 8798 women who reported a birth in the previous two years [of whom 3557 reported illness in their pregnancy], on 30 case studies of perinatal morbidity and mortality, and on 43 focus group discussions with mothers, other family members and health workers. Results Early pregnancy was often concealed, preparation for birth was minimal and trained attendance at birth was uncommon. Family members were favoured attendants, particularly mothers-in-law. The most common recalled maternal complications were prolonged labour, postpartum haemorrhage and retained placenta. Neonatal death, though less definable, was often associated with cessation of suckling and shortness of breath. Many home-based care practices for maternal and neonatal illness were described. Self-medication was common. There were delays in recognising and acting on danger signs, and in seeking care beyond the household, in which the cultural requirement for maternal seclusion, and the perceived expense of care, played a part. Of the 760 women who sought care at a government facility, 70% took more than 12 hours from the decision to seek help to actual consultation. Consultation was primarily with traditional healers, who were key actors in the ascription of causation. Use of the government primary health care system was limited: the most common source of allopathic care was the district hospital. Conclusions Major obstacles to seeking care were: a limited capacity to recognise danger signs; the need to watch and wait; and an overwhelming preference to treat illness within the community. Safer motherhood and newborn care programmes in rural communities, must address both community and health facility care to have an impact on morbidity and mortality. The roles of community actors such as mothers-in-law, husbands, local healers and pharmacies, and increased access to properly trained birth attendants need to be addressed if delays in reaching health facilities are to be shortened.