THE GOLDEN 1000 DAYS

The first 1,000 days between conception and the child’s second birthday are crucial for the health and well-being of the mother and child, with the period often referred as ‘the golden 1000 days.’ A crucial and vulnerable period, this phase carries with it a significant risk of maternal and child mortality and morbidity. Proper health and nutrition practices in this golden period not only impact survival, but have a profound impact on the child’s cognitive and physical growth.

The Antara Foundation’s interventions focus on zeroing down on the neediest mothers and children across this golden period, and ensure full service delivery to them – from timely identification to proper management at the village or facility-level, to adequate follow-ups. We work closely with and through the government, and in close collaboration with communities to design and implement the solutions. Our vision is to ensure “every mother and each child has an equal start to a healthy life”.

Through this visual series, we discuss the importance of different stages along the ‘golden 1000-day period’, along with examples of impact stories from our interventions.

Explore the different stages along the 1,000 days

Stage 1: PREGNANCY

Simple healthcare practices like regular antenatal check-ups, vaccinations and good nutrition across the 9-month pregnancy period are vital for the mother’s and child's health.

Our interventions ensure timely identification and management of the highest-risk mothers and children. Watch Sarita’s story to learn how AAA Platform enables this.

Stage 2: BIRTH + 48 Hours

Well-trained birthing nurses and properly managed labor rooms are essential to ensure the survival and good health of the mother and child.

Our nurse mentoring intervention ensures safe deliveries through comprehensive classroom and on-site training to government birthing nurses. Watch Heera Bai’s story to learn more.

Stage 3: NEONATAL PERIOD

Timely follow-ups and proper care for the newborn and the mother in the first four weeks post-delivery are critical.

Our interventions teach frontline workers essential maternal, child health and nutrition concepts across the 1,000 days. Watch this impact story on how frontline workers ensured good health of Digeshwary’s low birth weight twins.

Stage 4: CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Proper healthcare and nutrition till age-2, and beyond, are critical for the child’s physical growth and mental development.

Watch an impact story on how frontline workers identified a child with severe acute malnutrition using our AAA intervention, and took appropriate measures for her treatment.

Comments

Heroes of social change: rural India’s ASHA and Anganwadi workers

In my recent field visit to Madhya Pradesh’s Barwani district, my colleagues introduced me to three most resilient women. One of them works as an Accredited Social Health Activist, known as a village ASHA and two are Anganwadi Workers (AWW) who are primarily in charge of nutrition and well-being of children under five. All three had two things in common – a childhood brush with polio, and the unstoppable courage to defy the odds. Life had dealt each of them a difficult hand before their second birthdays. Prior to when the Polio vaccine became widely available in India, all three women became victims of this debilitating disease. Each of them remembers getting a high fever, followed by paralysis, severe for one of them, milder, yet crippling for the other two. When I heard what daunting adversities these three women had surmounted and saw the courage and drive with which they were helping other women and children in their communities despite their own struggles, I felt that I must share...

One month into my apprenticeship

Aditi Revankar. Frontline workers. I would say, frontline women. Women. In purple. An ASHA. In red. An AWW. In green and white. An ANM. Together, the AAA*. Three frontline women responsible for the delivery of public health services to the masses of India. Chourai. Sausar. Bicchua. Tamia. Mokhed. One-month in, I had been to each of the blocks in which we are directly intervening. I went with the respective Program Officers (PO) in charge. Paras (the team lead), Prerna, Yogesh, Harhini, Shankar. Also, with Soumya, our nurse mentor, who travels to all blocks for capacity building. They, the skilled practitioners, me, the apprentice. An anganwadi worker in her place of work When I got to Chhindwara, the initial village mapping process was largely finished. We were now chasing down the last few frontline women, who hadn’t yet sent in their village maps; the ones that necessitated that we pay them a visit in person. The village maps are integral to the AAA platform, a flagship Antara Foun...

The Antara Foundation is presenting at the International Conference on Birth Defects and Disabilities in the Developing World (ICBD) 2023

We are thrilled to announce that our organization, The Antara Foundation (TAF), has been accepted to present three posters at the International Conference on Birth Defects and Disabilities in the Developing World (ICBD) 2023, being held from March 1st-4th in Santiago, Chile. The theme of the 2023 edition of the conference is Accelerating Action for Birth Defects and Disabilities: Surveillance, Prevention, Diagnosis, Management and Family-Centered Care. At The Antara Foundation, we are currently working across 8 districts in rural Madhya Pradesh. As part of our health interventions, we work with Community Health Workers (CHWs) within the public health system to facilitate equitable, sustainable, and scalable solutions on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) outcomes. Our organization prioritizes timely service delivery along the continuum of care contributing towards improved prevention, management, and surveillance of birth defects. TAF is excited to ...

The Antara Foundation Blog

Search This Blog