ECD Newborn Parenting Education Program

Early childhood development: specifically the first 1000 days of life are of crucial importance. It sets the trajectory for the future and transgenerational health. Life of a neonate is influenced by several factors of which responsive caregiving is one of the most imperative facets. In the earliest days of life, the role of responsive caregiving is vital for the child's growing brain. Interactions between the primary caregiver and the neonate in early infancy period foster social and cognitive growth, build trust, provide sense of security, and helps build brain of the young child. In resource constraints areas, particularly in primary health care settings, there is a lack of initiatives to support responsive caregiving. The investigators intend to do an implementation adaptation and assessment of impact and efficacy of early childhood newborn parenting education program at primary health care facilities of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Investigators already have a structured program at our tertiary health care setting, with this project, investigators now intend to adapt it to primary care settings of Aga Khan Health Services Pakistan and Afghanistan a) explore the impact of newborn parenting education program on parental outcomes b) conduct training for health care providers and asses their pre-post knowledge and skills and c) explore systems readiness to scale up this program at national level. The expected outcome of this research is to build a proof of concept of this intervention in primary healthcare settings and disseminate its findings for a national level scale up and to advocate the importance of it to the government sector, civil society organization and funding agencies.