2. Materials and Methods
vomiting, nausea,
REGRESSION
The present study was conducted under the Community Alma Ata Partnership through the Updated Research and Education (CAPTURE) project. Detailed methods of this study have been reported elsewhere [A total of 384 women were recruited within 122 identified clusters, and each was randomly allocated to either the intervention group (The mentors consisted of undergraduate students enrolled in the program areas of midwifery, nutrition, nursing, pharmacy, and hospital administration, and who had prior involvement in maternal and child health surveillance activities conducted under the CAPTURE project.The maternal mentoring program delivered to the intervention group involved the following sequential components: (1) preconception health education delivered once during an initial home visit via face-to-face counseling in addition to providing a supplemental educational booklet; (2) monthly monitoring of pregnancy status via WhatsApp (WA) or basic Short Messaging Service (SMS), where women were asked to respond to the text prompt, “Have you experienced signs or symptoms of pregnancy such as late menstruation, nausea, vomiting, or others?”; and (3) once women reported experiencing signs of pregnancy, they were sent a text reminder to book their first antenatal care (ANC) visit immediately. Follow-up messages were sent every other day and included reminders to comply with routine provider visits and recommended iron supplementation. The control group received standard care based on current nationally recommended procedures for women of childbearing age.The CAPTURE team trained mentors to ensure that they were competent in their role as preconception health counselors during the initial home visit phase of the program. In addition, a standardized preconception education booklet and worksheet were used to ensure intervention quality and validity [Fetal weight between weeks 27 to 30 was estimated using ultrasonography (USG) examination conducted by trained obstetricians. Each pregnant woman in the study sample was scheduled to visit an approved obstetrician once she entered the 27th week of gestation. Birth weight and birth length were measured within 24 h of the newborn’s birth by a trained midwife or nurse in the health clinic or hospital in which the delivery took place. Weight was measured using a digital weighing scale (SECA 876, Hannover, Germany) to the nearest 100 g, while length was measured using SECA measuring tapes to the nearest millimeter. A weight-for-length Z-score, length-for-age Z-score, and weight-for-age Z-score were generated using Stata 15 [All data were then analyzed using Stata 15, which involved constructing a frequency distribution to determine participant characteristics, as well as bivariate and multivariable analyses. The average difference test between treatment groups was performed using chi-square and independent t-tests. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression was used to explore the effect of the intervention on fetal growth and infant birthweight, with the factors of cluster, age, parity, level of education, employment status, income, and maternal body mass index (BMI) controlled for.