Infant and young child feeding indicators are positively associated with length and family care indicators in the children of the Women First trial participants.

This research describes the proportion of children in four low- and middle-income countries with adequate dietary practices at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months of age and how these practices changed over time using the World Health Organisation and UNICEF's infant young child feeding (IYCF) indicators. The associations between the IYCF indicators and anthropometric z-scores from 6 to 24 months, and between the IYCF indicators and the family care indicators (FCIs) at 24 months are described. This was a longitudinal study of offspring from participants in the Women First Preconception Maternal Nutrition Trial conducted in Sud-Ubangi, Democratic Republic of Congo; Chimaltenango, Guatemala; Belagavi, North Karnataka, India; and Thatta, Sindh Province, Pakistan.

Pregnant Women in Four Low-Middle Income Countries Have a High Prevalence of Inadequate Dietary Intakes That Are Improved by Dietary Diversity.

Background: Up-to-date dietary data are required to understand the diverse nutritional challenges of pregnant women living in low-middle income countries (LMIC). To that end, dietary data were collected from 1st trimester pregnant women in rural areas of Guatemala, India, Pakistan, and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) participating in a maternal lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) Randomized Controlled Trial to examine dietary diversity (DD), usual group energy and nutrient intakes, and prevalence of inadequate dietary intakes.

Methods: Two 24-h dietary recalls were conducted in ~240 pregnant women/site (total = 966) prior to 12-week gestation.

Food insecurity and nutritional status of preconception women in a rural population of North Karnataka, India.

Background: As per the World Health Organization, the nutritional status of women of reproductive age is important, as effects of undernutrition are propagated to future generations. More than one-third of Indian women in the reproductive age group are in a state of chronic nutritional deficiency during the preconception period leading to poor health and likely resulting in low birth weight babies. This study was aimed to assess the food insecurity and nutritional status of preconception women in a rural population of north Karnataka.

Lost to follow-up among pregnant women in a multi-site community based maternal and newborn health registry: a prospective study.

Background: It is important when conducting epidemiologic studies to closely monitor lost to follow up (LTFU) rates. A high LTFU rate may lead to incomplete study results which in turn can introduce bias to the trial or study, threatening the validity of the findings. There is scarce information on LTFU in prospective community-based perinatal epidemiological studies.

Establishment of a Maternal Newborn Health Registry in the Belgaum District of Karnataka, India.

Background: Pregnancy-related vital registration is important to inform policy to reduce maternal, fetal and newborn mortality, yet few systems for capturing accurate data are available in low-middle income countries where the majority of the mortality occurs. Furthermore, methods to effectively implement high-quality registration systems have not been described. The goal of creating the registry described in this paper was to inform public health policy makers about pregnancy outcomes in our district so that appropriate interventions to improve these outcomes could be undertaken and to position the district to be a leader in pregnancy-related public health research.

Data quality monitoring and performance metrics of a prospective, population-based observational study of maternal and newborn health in low resource settings.

Background: To describe quantitative data quality monitoring and performance metrics adopted by the Global Network's (GN) Maternal Newborn Health Registry (MNHR), a maternal and perinatal population-based registry (MPPBR) based in low and middle income countries (LMICs).

Methods: Ongoing prospective, population-based data on all pregnancy outcomes within defined geographical locations participating in the GN have been collected since 2008. Data quality metrics were defined and are implemented at the cluster, site and the central level to ensure data quality.