Maternal nutrition influences a child’s birthweight, which affects the child’s growth and subsequent survival. However, the broad consequences of maternal undernutrition and the outcomes of interventions to improve maternal nutrition take years to manifest. To examine the long-term health outcomes of low birthweight infants in response to a maternal nutritional supplementation intervention without this obstacle, we developed the Forecasting Population Progress (FPOP) microsimulation model. The intervention we assessed was based on the findings of a published clinical trial outcome that reduced the incidence of low birthweight, a known cause of stunting. We implemented the “before intervention” and “after intervention” simulations and generated the difference in outcomes, using a spatially explicit synthetic baseline population of Indonesia generated from a microdata sample of the Indonesian 2010 census. We focused specifically on two provinces—Yogyakarta and Bali—which represent different levels of fertility and mortality, but both exhibit significant underweight birth. The baseline scenario represented the current nutritional status of pregnant women in the two Indonesian provinces and projected that implementing a multiple nutrition supplementation intervention would, after 30 years, avert 8 per 1,000 low birthweight births, 3.8 per 1,000 stunted children younger than 5 years of age, and 0.25 infant deaths per 1,000 births. As our model results demonstrate, improvement in maternal nutrition would reduce infant mortality, but an even greater impact could be the reduction in growth stunting.

Maternal nutrition influences a child's birthweight, which affects the child's growth and subsequent survival. However, the broad consequences of maternal undernutrition and the outcomes of interventions to improve maternal nutrition take years to manifest. To examine the long-term health outcomes of low birthweight infants in response to a maternal nutritional supplementation intervention without this obstacle, we developed the Forecasting Population Progress (FPOP), a microsimulation model. The intervention we assessed was based on the findings of a published clinical trial outcome that reduced the incidence of low birthweight, a known cause of stunting. We implemented the "before intervention" and "after intervention" simulations and generated the difference in outcomes, using a spatially explicit synthetic baseline population of Indonesia generated from a microdata sample of the Indonesian 2010 census. We focused specifically on two provinces--Yogyakarta and Bali--which represent different levels of fertility and mortality but both exhibit significant underweight birth. The baseline scenario represented the current nutritional status of pregnant women in the two Indonesian provinces and projected that implementing a multiple nutrition supplementation intervention would, after 30 years, avert 8 per 1,000 low birthweight births, 3.8 per 1,000 stunted children younger than 5 years of age, and .25 infant deaths per 1,000 births. As our model results demonstrate, improvement in maternal nutrition would reduce infant mortality, but an even greater impact could be the reduction in growth stunting.

The Nutrition and Health series of books have, as an overriding mission, to provide health professionals with texts that are considered essential because each includes: 1) a synthesis of the state of the science, 2) timely, in-depth reviews by the leading researchers in their respective fields, 3) extensive, up-to-date fully annotated reference lists, 4) a detailed index, 5) relevant tables and figures, 6) identification of paradigm shifts and the consequences, 7) virtually no overlap of information between chapters, but targeted, inter-chapter referrals, 8) suggestions of areas for future research and 9) balanced, data driven answers to patient /health professionals questions which are based upon the total ity of evidence rather than the findings of any single study. The series volumes are not the outcome of a symposium. Rather, each editor has the potential to examine a chosen area with a broad perspective, both in subject matter as well as in the choice of chapter authors. The international perspective, especially with regard to public health initiatives, is emphasized where appropriate. The editors, whose trainings are both research and practice oriented, have the opportunity to develop a primary objec tive for their book; define the scope and focus, and then invite the leading authorities from around the world to be part of their initiative. The authors are encouraged to provide an overview of the field, discuss their own research and relate the research findings to potential human health consequences.

On the basis of a comprehensive literature review and analysis, Nutrition During Lactation points out specific directions for needed research in understanding the relationship between the nutrition of healthy mothers and the outcomes of lactation. Of widest interest are the committee's clear-cut recommendations for mothers and health care providers. The volume presents data on who among U.S. mothers is breastfeeding, a critical evaluation of methods for assessing the nutritional status of lactating women, and an analysis of how to relate the mother's nutrition to the volume and composition of the milk. Available data on the links between a mother's nutrition and the nutrition and growth of her infant and current information on the risk of transmission through breastfeeding of allergic diseases, environmental toxins, and certain viruses (including the HIV virus) are included. Nutrition During Lactation also studies the effects of maternal cigarette smoking, drug use, and alcohol consumption.

More children born today will survive to adulthood than at any time in history. It is now time to emphasize health and development in middle childhood and adolescence--developmental phases that are critical to health in adulthood and the next generation. Child and Adolescent Health and Development explores the benefits that accrue from sustained and targeted interventions across the first two decades of life. The volume outlines the investment case for effective, costed, and scalable interventions for low-resource settings, emphasizing the cross-sectoral role of education. This evidence base can guide policy makers in prioritizing actions to promote survival, health, cognition, and physical growth throughout childhood and adolescence.

Having a child remains one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide. Fifteen hundred women die every day while giving birth. That's a half a million mothers every year. UNICEF's flagship publication, The State of the World's Children 2009, addresses maternal mortality, one of the most intractable problems for development work.The difference in pregnancy risk between women in developing countries and their peers in the industrialised world is often termed the greatest health divide in the world. A woman in Niger has a one in seven chance of dying during the course of her lifetime from complications during pregnancy or delivery. That's in stark contrast to the risk for mothers in America, where it's one in 4,800 or in Ireland, where it's just one in 48,000. Addressing that gap is a multidisciplinary challenge, requiring an emphasis on education, human resources, community involvement and social equality. At a minimum, women must be guaranteed antenatal care, skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetrics, and postpartum care. These essential interventions will only be guaranteed within the context of improved education and the abolition of discrimination.

New evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Updated estimates show the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to prevailing levels from almost a decade ago. Although progress continues to be made in reducing child stunting, over 22 percent of children under five years of age are still affected. Other forms of malnutrition are also growing: adult obesity continues to increase in countries irrespective of their income levels, and many countries are coping with multiple forms of malnutrition at the same time – overweight and obesity, as well as anaemia in women, and child stunting and wasting.