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Field
Abstract
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Before
Maternal and child health indicators in Senegal have shown limited progress in the past decades. The current standard prenatal supplement in Senegal, iron-folic acid (IFA), has been shown to decrease the incidence of low birthweight by as much as 21%, and neonatal mortality by 27%, relative to a control group when all 180 doses are taken (Srivastava et al., 2025). However, in 2019, just 66% of women in Senegal took at least 90 doses of IFA during their last pregnancy (Nutrition International, 2025). Maternal micronutrient supplementation (MMS) is now the WHO-recommended prenatal supplement, shown to have even better outcomes than IFA. However, as governments designate MMS as the standard of care, attention must be paid to boost demand such that MMS does not face the same insufficient demand as IFA. This study examines whether a prompted conversation with family members such as a husband or mother-in-law affects women's willingness-to-pay for MMS. Upon recruitment at a first antenatal care appointment, pregnant women will be randomized into a treatment group that receives a prompt and flyer that encourages them to discuss their valuation of MMS with a family member before the survey team returns. The survey team will return the next day for the Becker-de-Groot Marschak auction on MMS. If we find that this interaction increases a woman’s WTP for MMS relative to when women are not encouraged to talk to a family member, for example, then one action the government could take to increase demand would be to involve household members beyond the woman in purchasing decisions about MMS.
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After
Maternal and child health indicators in Senegal have shown limited progress in the past decades. The current standard prenatal supplement in Senegal, iron-folic acid (IFA), has been shown to decrease the incidence of low birthweight by as much as 21%, and neonatal mortality by 27%, relative to a control group when all 180 doses are taken (Srivastava et al., 2025). However, in 2019, just 66% of women in Senegal took at least 90 doses of IFA during their last pregnancy (Nutrition International, 2025). Maternal micronutrient supplementation (MMS) is now the WHO-recommended prenatal supplement, shown to have even better outcomes than IFA. However, as governments designate MMS as the standard of care, attention must be paid to boost demand such that MMS does not face the same insufficient demand as IFA. This study examines whether a prompted conversation with family members such as a husband or mother-in-law affects women's willingness-to-pay for MMS. Upon recruitment at a first antenatal care appointment, pregnant women will be randomized into a treatment group that receives a prompt and flyer that encourages them to discuss their valuation of MMS with a family member before the survey team returns. The survey team will return the next day or the same day for the Becker-de-Groot Marschak auction on MMS. If we find that this interaction increases a woman’s WTP for MMS relative to when women are not encouraged to talk to a family member, for example, then one action the government could take to increase demand would be to involve household members beyond the woman in purchasing decisions about MMS.
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Last Published
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Before
June 17, 2026 12:23 PM
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After
June 17, 2026 03:51 PM
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Intervention (Public)
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Before
Upon recruitment at a first antenatal care appointment, pregnant women will be randomized into a treatment group that receives a prompt and flyer that encourages them to discuss their valuation of MMS with a family member before they participate in an MMS auction. The survey team will return to their home the next day for the Becker-de-Groot Marschak auction on MMS.
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After
Upon recruitment at a first antenatal care appointment, pregnant women will be randomized into a treatment group that receives a prompt and flyer that encourages them to discuss their valuation of MMS with a family member before they participate in an MMS auction. The survey team will return to their home the next day for the Becker-de-Groot Marschak auction on MMS. Midwives will randomize treatment by giving every other woman that she recruits for the study the treatment flyer, and explaining steps through which to talk to a family member about MMS on the flyer.
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Field
Randomization Method
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Before
every other
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After
Every other woman recruited by the midwife will be put into the treatment group. The others will be in the control group.
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Field
Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
women's preferred size of MMS (30/60/90 tablet), WTP demand curves
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After
women's preferred size of MMS (30/60/90 tablet), WTP demand curves, treatment interacted with same day or next day visit
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