Webinar—Breastfeeding: Insights for improving malaria, family planning, and maternal and child health outcomes in northwestern Nigeria

In northwestern Nigeria, Breakthrough RESEARCH is evaluating the effectiveness of Breakthrough ACTION’S integrated versus malaria-only social and behavior change programming on priority malaria, family planning, and maternal, newborn, and child health plus nutrition (MNCH+N) outcomes. A behavioral sentinel surveillance (BSS) baseline survey was conducted in September 2019, with a midline and endline survey planned. The BSS survey measures changes in key behaviors and ideations across malaria, family planning, and MNCH+N to inform Breakthrough ACTION’s program adaption and scale-up over the course of the project. In this webinar, Breakthrough RESEARCH shared findings from its work related to early breastfeeding initiation within one hour of birth and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Researchers presented new ideational metrics collected and discussed how these metrics are associated with behaviors for breastfeeding women who have had a child in the preceding two years. Breakthrough ACTION presented key program design and the programmatic implications of the research