Maternal Nutrition in Focus at FIGO World Congress – 21-28 October

21 October 2021: The FIGO World Congress 2021 opened today featuring a series of live and on-demand online sessions on various topics related to maternal health and pregnancy. The Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Consortium is presenting a session on maternal nutrition, ‘The unfinished agenda of maternal malnutrition and its impact on birth outcomes“. This is an on-demand pre-recorded session (S-178) available in the session library to registered attendees. The link to register for the conference is here. This session will be available until 31st December 2021.

The Objective 

Maternal nutrition during pregnancy remains a neglected area, even as an alarming number of women continue to suffer from multiple micronutrient deficiencies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The consequences of maternal malnutrition are severe, as women with severe anemia are twice as likely to die during pregnancy, and children born to malnourished mothers are more likely to be born too small, too soon, or stillborn. While iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation as an intervention has been an integral part of antenatal care programs around the globe for the past five decades, it does not provide all the micronutrients required during pregnancy. Multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) has been demonstrated to provide additional benefits compared to IFA in improving pregnancy and birth outcomes, yet it has not been adopted widely in LMICs.

This session, therefore, aims to increase awareness and understanding of the relationship between maternal malnutrition and birth outcomes, share the evidence on the impact of maternal nutrition interventions ready to scale up including multiple micronutrient supplementation on birth outcomes, and share country experiences related to the integration of MMS in antenatal care services. It features global experts in maternal nutrition, who will each focus on one key area of maternal malnutrition and MMS.

Topics and Speakers

The framing of the discussion and closing remarks are by Dr. Saskia Osendarp, Executive Director, The Micronutrient Forum. Speakers and topics are as follows –

1. The evidence on maternal nutrition & multiple micronutrient supplements – Dr. Parul Christian, Director, Human Nutrition Program, and Associate Chair, Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
2. MMS Policy and Program experience of Bangladesh – Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Line Director, NNS, HPNSP, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh
3. Implementation research to enhance introduction and effectiveness use of MMS in four countries – Nita Dalmiya, Maternal Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF New York
4. Policies and practice related to nutrition-quality in Antenatal Care- Dr. Amy Pollack, Director Maternal, Newborn, Child Health, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dissemination

To promote this event on social media the following graphics may be used:

Flyer

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