Healthy Pregnancies & Newborn Health

The World Health Organization estimates that about 287,000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2020. Some of the causes of maternal mortality include excessive blood loss, infection, high blood pressure, unsafe abortion, obstructed labor, anemia, and malaria. The risks are disproportionately higher in hard-to-reach areas. With timely care, however, most of these deaths are preventable.

A Summary of the Challenge in Numbers

Infant Mortality (0-12 months)

Probability of an infant dying between birth and exactly 5 years of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.

Neonatal Mortality (0-28 days) 

The neonatal mortality rate is the probability that a child born in a specific year or period will die during the first 28 completed days of life.

Our Response & Impact

Living Goods supports community health workers (CHWs) to conduct regular home visits to pregnant women. CHWs work to ensure that all pregnant women attend all antenatal care clinic visits and give birth in a health facility. They make early pregnancy diagnoses, carry out education on maternal health and nutrition, and register women to receive automated text messages with advice timed to their delivery date.

CHWs use digital tools to flag risk factors and danger signs, and refer to high-risk pregnancies for further management at health facilities. CHWs also assess children’s nutrition statuses, provide at-home education on a healthy diet, and promote immediate and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life—the best nutrition a mother can offer her newborn child.

In 2023, the community health workers we support registered 132,470 new pregnancies and served over 6 million people.

A community health worker (CHW) in Kenya
performs a health assessment on a child.

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