Prenatal early food and multiple micronutrient supplementation trial reduced infant mortality in Bangladesh, but did not influence morbidity.

AIM: A previous maternal and infant nutrition intervention in rural Matlab, Bangladesh, showed that prenatal nutrient supplements improved child survival, but had no effect on size at birth. This secondary analysis examined whether prenatal multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS), on their own or combined with an early invitation to receive prenatal food supplements, affected child morbidity. METHODS: This randomised trial enrolled 4436 pregnant women from November 2001 to October 2003 and allocated them to early or standard invitations to food supplements, in the ninth and 20th weeks of pregnancy, respectively, and supplements of either the standard 60 mg iron with 400 μg folic acid, 30 mg iron with 400 μg folic acid or MMS. Quasi-Poisson regression was used to analyse morbidity. RESULTS: There were 3560 single live births and 3516 had morbidity data. The incidence rates of fever, diarrhoea and acute lower respiratory tract infection were 15.3, 3.6 and 2.3 episodes per person-year, respectively. The separate or combined interventions had no effect on morbidity up to 24 months. CONCLUSION: Early invitations to prenatal food supplements or prenatal MMS had no effect on common infections in rural Bangladesh, suggesting that earlier findings on improved child survival were not mediated by an effect on child morbidity

Routine antenatal care for women and their babies: summary of NICE guidance

What you need to know:-Refer women who are 13+ weeks pregnant with unexplained vaginal bleeding to secondary care for review.-Advise women to avoid going to sleep on their back after 28 weeks of pregnancy and to consider using (for example) pillows to maintain their position while sleeping.-Rates of maternal mortality and stillbirth are highest among women and babies from deprived areas, and higher among black, mixed ethnicity, and Asian women and babies compared with those who are white.-Routine ultrasound scanning is not recommended in low risk singleton pregnancies during the third trimester

CATALYSED ALKALINE OXIDATION AS A WOOD FRACTIONATION TECHNIQUE

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