The Lancet series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition
The Lancet have published a landmark series of papers on Maternal and Child Undernutrition. Produced and distilled though the combined knowledge and expertise of academics and agencies, including experts at World Health Organization, these papers will serve to catalyze the international community to bring Nutrition more squarely on the global agenda. The papers bring to bear evidence on the critical role of early nutrition in the health of children, making clear that the golden period of intervention for nutrition is between pregnancy and 24 months.
While highlighting that nutrition is a desperately neglected aspect of maternal, newborn and child health, it advocates for preventing maternal and child undernutrition as a long-term investment that will benefit the current generation and the next. The World Health Organization regards nutrition as a foundation for health and recognizes that over a third of child deaths, or 3.5 million, are due to undernutrition. It affirms the need for renewed and concerted action towards reducing undernutrition.