Summary
Maternal nutrition during the postnatal period receives limited programmatic emphasis despite its importance. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership prepared behavior profiles on diet diversity and diet quantity to help program managers, researchers, and implementers translate nutrition guidance for women during the postnatal period into program actions that improve practices. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership also developed a technical brief to explain how to customize and use postnatal maternal nutrition behavioral profiles to specific countries or contexts.
Key Take-Aways
- MOMENTUM behavior profiles should be adapted to specific countries and contexts and can be used to inform program design or modification, formative research on postnatal behaviors, and the development of counseling services around optimal nutrition practices.
- Improving diets in the postnatal period requires attention to two priority areas: access—availability and affordability—to healthy foods and personal or normative ideas about what is acceptable. Addressing both requires multi-sectoral programs which reach across health, agriculture, and livelihood development.
- Strengthening nutrition guidance as part of the postnatal platform is important, as evidence shows the positive influence of health workers’ guidance on diets and adequate food intake.