LIFT-UP aims to close a critical know-do gap: there are feeding practices and supportive care interventions that we know can help small vulnerable newborns survive and thrive, but they don’t reach all who can benefit.
LIFT-UP is a group of studies investigating ways to improve feeding and growth of small vulnerable newborns (SVNs) in low-resource settings. These infants — born preterm, small for their gestational age or a combination of the two — account for 55.3% of global neonatal deaths.
Although there are concrete steps clinicians, mothers, and families can take to care for these infants, proven interventions don’t reach all who need them. (source)
LIFT-UP includes two main components:
- A comprehensive support and counseling package that LIFT-UP co-designed, implemented and evaluated to improve practices in lactation, mother’s own milk feeding, Kangaroo Mother Care, and safe hygiene in India, Tanzania, and Malawi (2025 – 2026).
- A human milk fortification randomized control trial to explore the efficacy of human milk fortification for very low birthweight and/or very preterm infants on growth and morbidity outcomes in India (2025 – 2027).
Building a Global Good
Beyond strengthening the evidence base, LIFT-UP is creating a global good.
The Feeding Support Package Plus (FSP+) was co-designed with the people who ultimately use its tools — government and facility leadership, clinicians and community providers, mothers and families — and evaluated through implementation science research to ensure it is practical in the real world.
The FSP+ is freely available to download, use, and adapt so facility leadership and managers as well as policymakers around the world can put it to work in their own settings.
LIFT-UP Consortium Partners
- Ariadne Labs, United States
- Community Empowerment Lab, India
- Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belgaum, India
- University of North Carolina–Project Malawi, Lilongwe, Malawi
- Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- Emory University, Atlanta, GA
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
- Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA
- The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI
- PATH, Seattle, WA