Research >> Maternal health

Caste prejudice and infection: why a dangerous lack of hygiene persists in government hospitals
- Topics: Caste, Child health, Maternal health, Sanitation
In light of India’s continuing efforts to reduce maternal mortality and make childbirth safer for women, this article explores why government hospitals continue to be dangerously unhygienic, posing serious risk of infection to patients in maternity wards and labor rooms. ...Read More..

Child height in India: Facts and Interpretations from the NFHS-4, 2015-16
- Topics: Child health, Gender, Height, Maternal health, Sanitation, Social inequality
An analysis of child height-for-age using the newly released data from the National Family Health Survey-4 indicates that the average child height increased by about four-tenths of a height-for-age standard deviation between 2005 and 2015. Although important, this increase is...Read More..

Underweight & pregnant: Maternity entitlements and weight gain during pregnancy
- Topics: Child health, Gender, Government programs, Maternal health
Poor maternal nutrition in India is a major cause for concern. The depth of India's maternal nutrition problems is evident in its high neonatal mortality, widespread underweight pre-pregnancy, low weight gain during pregnancy, and high rates of maternal anemia. Poor...Read More..

Pre-pregnancy body mass and weight gain during pregnancy in India & sub-Saharan Africa
- Topics: Child health, Gender, Maternal health
Abstract: Despite being wealthier, Indian children are significantly shorter and smaller than African children. These differences begin very early in life, suggesting that they may in part re- flect differences in maternal health. By applying reweighting estimation strategies to the Demographic...Read More..

Early life mortality and height in Indian states
- Topics: Child health, Height, Maternal health
Height is a marker for health, cognitive ability and economic productivity. Recent research on the determinants of height suggests that postneonatal mortality predicts height because it is a measure of the early life disease environment to which a cohort is...Read More..

Costs and Consequences of a Cash Transfer for Hospital Births in a Rural District of Uttar Pradesh, India
- Topics: Child health, Government programs, Maternal health
The Janani Suraksha Yojana, India’s “safe motherhood program,” is a conditional cash transfer to encourage women to give birth in health facilities. Despite the program’s apparent success increasing facility-based births, quantitative evaluations have not found corresponding improvements in health outcomes....Read More..

Abstract: Despite profoundly negative health consequences of indoor air pollution, most rural Indian households cook using traditional biomass fuel, rather than cleaner cooking fuel. Although many factors contribute to households’ continued use of solid fuels, this paper focuses on one: women’s intra-household status. We...Read More..