RESEARCH ARTICLE Building Social Networks for Maternal and Newborn Health in Poor Urban Settlements: A Cross-Sectional Study in Bangladesh

Background The beneficial influence of social networks on health and wellbeing is well-established. In poor urban settlements in Bangladesh, BRAC’s Manoshi programme trains community health workers (CHWs) to support women through pregnancy, delivery and postpartum pe-riods. This paper test the hypothesis that the introduction of CHWs as weak ties into the so-cial networks of Manoshi members mediates improvements in maternal and neonatal health (MNH) best practices by providing support, facilitating ideational change, connecting mother to resources, and strengthening or countering the influence of strong ties. Methods 1000 women who had given birth in the last three months were identified and interviewed as part of ongoing monitoring of 5 poor urban settlements in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A social net-works questionnaire was administered which elicited women’s perceived networks around pregnancy, delivery and post-partum periods. Mediation analysis was performed to test the hypothesis that penetration of Manoshi CHWs into women’s perceived networks has a ben