Bangladesh | International Center for Maternal & Newborn Health

Using ongoing maternal and newborn intervention trials to obtain data critical to maternal, fetal and newborn health

Screening and treating pregnant women at home for infections.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

Optimizing place of treatment and antibiotic regimens for young infants presenting with signs of possible serious bacterial infection

Our team has worked in Bangladesh for over 15 years with the Projahnmo Study Group.

Maternal, Newborn, And Child Health

Deaths in children under-five have been declining rapidly—except for newborn mortality, a challenge greatest in the poorest populations. Too many women still give birth with limited to no support from the health care system. Helping women access community-based or peripheral level health services early in pregnancy is critical to improving maternal and newborn health.

Our work in Bangladesh focuses in the Sylhet Division, among the poorest in the nation.
Only 45% of women in Sylhet use family planning, compared to the national rate of 61 percent
80% of pregnant women will deliver at home
Sylhet Division also has the highest rates of newborn and infant mortality in Bangladesh

Our research aims to promote contraceptive use and birth spacing by providing postpartum family planning counseling to new mothers, fathers and other members of the community.
Community-based strategies are critical to reducing adverse maternal and newborn health outcomes around the delivery period. To better understand how to design and deliver community-based interventions, we aim to assess the causes of morbidity and mortality for mothers and newborns at both the community and facility level.
Our team works to develop, implement and evaluate strategies to tackle respiratory and other infections in young infants. Community health workers encourage parents to bring their sick children to trained providers, improve case management through simplified treatment with antibiotics, and expand access to pneumococcal vaccines.