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. 2025 Jan 15;22(1):4.
doi: 10.1186/s12978-025-01947-w.

Resilience in maternal, newborn, and child health in low- and middle-income countries: findings from a scoping review

Olusesan Ayodeji Makinde  1   2 , Babasola O Okusanya  3 , Nchelem K Ichegbo  4 , Ifeanyi C Mgbachi  4 , Emmanuel Olamijuwon  4   5 , Fatima Abdulaziz Sule  4 , Olalekan A Uthman  6
Affiliations

Resilience in maternal, newborn, and child health in low- and middle-income countries: findings from a scoping review

Olusesan Ayodeji Makinde et al. Reprod Health. .

Abstract

Objectives: The research objectives were to identify and synthesise prevailing definitions and indices of resilience in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and propose a harmonised definition of resilience in MNCH research and health programmes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Design: Scoping review using Arksey and O'Malley's framework and a Delphi survey for consensus building.

Participants: Mothers, new-borns, and children living in low- and middle-income countries were selected as participants.

Outcomes: Resilience as defined by the authors was deduced from the studies.

Results: Twenty-two out of 76,566 cited studies published between 2006 and 2010 were included in the review. Thirteen (59.1%) examined maternal resilience, and nine (40.9%) examined newborn and child health resilience; most of the included studies were quantitative (n = 17; 81%). Seven studies defined 'resilience' in the context of maternal health, most of which described the term at the individual level. 'Maternal resilience' was measured using validated scales in five studies; another five defined newborn and child resilience. Only one reviewed study used maternal characteristics to identify newborn and child resilience. The synthesised consensus definition of 'maternal, newborn, and child resilience' is 'A woman's ability to prevent or adapt to significant and challenging circumstances including threats, tragedy, and trauma to herself during pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium and to her neonates or children five years or younger'.

Conclusion: The information identified was limited but included a few definitions of resilience in MNCH and an index of child resilience in LMICs. The proposed definition is useful for MNCH programme implementation and interventions in LMICs. Scoping review registration: The protocol for this review was registered in the open science framework at the registered address ( https://osf.io/jt6nr ).

Keywords: Child health; Child resilience; Maternal health; Maternal resilience; Newborn health; Scoping review.

Plain language summary

We used a robust search strategy to conduct a scoping review that generated a large amount of literature which we then pruned using a high-performing machine learning algorithm. The study used a novel method to generate and propose a new and uniform definition for resilience in maternal, newborn and child health programmes and research. One important limitation is that this study is a scoping review and did not assess the quality of the studies included in the review. Another limitation is that the definitions were generated from the studies and reports we identified and may have inadvertently missed some publications that are related to our topic because they were not in the databases searched.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval and consent to participate: This study does not involve human participants. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA study selection process flow chart
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Summary and spatial representation of countries of publication on maternal resilience
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Summary and spatial representation of countries of publication on newborn and child resilience
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Word cloud of constructs for defining resilience
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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