Blog >> Maternal health

Earlier this month, Scroll published this article calling for more support for women to help them successfully breastfeed their babies.   This support includes not only compensation and time off of work, but also assistance in order to get adequate nutrition...Read More..

Check out Nikhil’s article in EPW Engage in which he explores the government’s current pilot program (Mother’s Absolute Affection, or MAA) to improve breastfeeding.  Breastfeeding is known to help children survive, providing vital nutrition and protection from disease.  Nikhil argues...Read More..

The hard-working folks at the Demographic and Health Surveys and the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai have the perfect new year gift for researchers in India: the new round of the India's DHS, also called NFHS - 4 (2015-16)....Read More..

At the start of the new year, we were excited to see forward momentum on the national maternity entitlements program: the prime minister announced that the program would be made universal and cover all districts beginning January 1st, 2017 (up...Read More..

Do read Nikhil's article on poor public health services in Uttar Pradesh and the struggle of three newborns against neglect in public health facilities, poverty, and disease. This is the first part of a two-part piece. The second part will...Read More..

Rahul Jacob wrote a piece today in the Business Standard, highlighting r.i.c.e.’s research and calling on the government to convince people to use latrines if the SBM is to have any impact on public health, rather than simply meeting latrine...Read More..

Is Some Vaccine Worse than None?: The Rubella Vaccine Threshold Effect   The issue:Vaccines are the most effective tools to defend against viral infection. Diseases that use to be common causes of illnesses and deaths around the world, such as...Read More..

Diane Coffey's new article "Prepregnancy body mass and weight gain during pregnancy in India and sub-Saharan Africa" was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   Diane's article is important because it shows that maternal nutrition in India...Read More..

Different places in India are voting in national elections on different days. Diane and I wrote these thoughts about the election together. Today, India is preparing for an election which will shape the lives of more people than any election...Read More..

My article with Aparajita Chattopadhyay and Rajan Gupt just came out in Economic and Political Weekly -- check it out!  ...Read More..

This post is a little deeper in the scientific details than r.i.c.e. readers may be used to, but I hope you will stick with us, because it is important. Evidence is building up that enteropathy may matter a great deal....Read More..

In Hindi, saheli, means “female friend,” and only girls can have sahelis. This post is about two sahelis, Farzana and Suman, who, despite spending years on either side of the same wall, have had very different experiences of motherhood. Farzana...Read More..

Check out the new photos of life in rural Sitapur posted on the photos tab! Many thanks to Aashish, who among many others things, takes wonderful pictures for rice! He rode around the villages near our house early one morning...Read More..

Recently, Dean and Diane were interviewed about stunting in India for the United Nations Development Program's Zero Hunger Challenge. Dean talked about how sanitation leads to stunting and Diane talked about how women's status impacts children's health in India. Check...Read More..

Could an improving disease environment – which allows people to retain, absorb, and use more of the calories they consume – reduce calorie needs, and explain some of the puzzle of the decline in average calorie consumption in India over...Read More..

Last week I went to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to present our research on sanitation and child height at the UNC Water and Health conference. While traveling, I replaced my old suitcase from Banswara, Rajasthan with a new one, in...Read More..