Recently, The Lancet published a piece that proves that these same cost-effective, low-tech, community-based interventions I saw in Shivgarh can be effective as part of a country’s regular health system. The government of Pakistan, in partnership with the Aga Khan University and Save the Children, trained its community-based, frontline public health workers, called Lady Health Workers, to provide newborn care counseling to the women they saw as part of their day-to-day work.
The results were amazing. Because women were given the knowledge to make better decisions about their health and their children’s health, Pakistan saw a 15-percent decline in newborn mortality and a 21-percent reduction in the stillbirth rate in the region where the study was conducted.
Ismailimail 