Despite the Lao People’s DemocraticRepublic (Lao PDR)’s significant economic growth over thelast decade, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern.Rates of malnutrition are particularly high in remote,rural, and upland areas. Redressing these high rates ofmalnutrition is critical in reversing inequalities inmortality and ill-health throughout people’s lives. Thisreport presents the results of a qualitative study toinvestigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices relatedto maternal and child health and nutrition in localcommunities in four provinces of Lao PDR with high levels ofchildhood undernutrition. While study participants wereaware of the importance and benefits of antenatal care,facility-based birthing, and postnatal care, they alsoreported significant barriers to accessing these services.These barriers included poor road conditions and lack oftransportation, long distances to health facilities,language difficulties, and lack of spousal support. Withregard to infant and young child feeding, many mothers wereaware of the benefits of colostrum for the first 24 hoursand exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of lifeand tried to put this into practice. However, some ethnicminority women stated that at times it was hard to preventgrandmothers from giving the infant water or a little chewedrice. There were mixed results when it came to growthmonitoring of children. Even though mothers did participatein growth monitoring and promotion activities, most did notfully understand the reasons behind those activities. Accessto clean water and appropriate sanitation facilitiesdepended on location, but few families had access to safewater. While messages regarding handwashing and desistingfrom open defecation were well known in most villages,poverty and lack of support for providing safe andsustainable sanitation systems diminished the ability ofmany families to practice safe hygienic practices.
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