Maggie Woo Kinshella

Pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy condition characterized by high blood pressure after 20 weeks gestation with signs of damage to another organ system, most commonly the liver and kidneys, is the second leading direct cause of maternal and infant deaths and associated with over 70,000 maternal deaths and 500,000 infant deaths each year worldwide. Every day, 830 women lose their lives around the world due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth and two-thirds of all maternal deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa, where there are an estimated 201,000 maternal deaths a year. This represents one of the greatest global inequalities of our time. Nutrition has essential roles in the appropriate development of the placenta during pregnancy and certain micronutrients have clinical anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that may be important in the prevention of pre-eclampsia. However, current research into micronutrients to prevent pre-eclampsia remains inconclusive, suggesting a need to look broader at maternal dietary patterns, particularly in resource-constrained settings where many maternal deaths occur. As a part of the PRECISE network (https://precisenetwork.org/), which will follow 10,000 women across East, West and Southern Africa, my doctoral research explores how patterns in dietary diversity impact women’s health risks in sub-Saharan Africa. The research objective is to evaluate dietary patterns associated with pregnancy hypertension to better understand its determinants and those at highest risk, as well as to disentangle the direct ways that nutrition influences maternal outcomes and the indirect ways that malnutrition is a proxy for poverty and underlying inequalities. Employing a Human Rights-Based Approach (HBRA) as endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), this research will highlight the social inequalities that marginalize women in Sub-Saharan Africa and contribute to malnutrition. By exploring maternal diet and its association to maternal health outcomes in disadvantaged populations, such as among rural women in sub-Saharan Africa, there is potential to further understand the systemic gender biases that reflect and perpetuates disparities in health, as well as to advocate for maternal nutrition in global health and development priorities. Women’s empowerment is not possible without her health, which is not possible without overall food and nutritional security.