Role of Maternal in Preventing Stunting: a Systematic Review

Currently, stunting is seen as a serious public health problem. Although its prevalence has decreased, the stunting rate is a large number of cases in the world.

A literature search was conducted on electronic databases such as ProQuest, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar to identify relevant published articles from January 1, 2010, to July 1, 2020. Additional articles were identified from the reference lists and grey literature.

Three main phases require the optimal mother roles to prevent stunting in children during the golden phase. These phases include the preconception phase, the prenatal phase, and the infant-toddlerhood phase. Various mother roles include fulfilling maternal, fetal, infant, and child nutrition, carrying out early breastfeeding initiation, exclusive breastfeeding, and appropriate complementary feeding, optimizing the environment for child development, optimizing family support, and avoiding various psychosocial factors that can be detrimental during growth, and child development.

The mother roles in the golden phase are crucial to preventing stunting in children. Although the conception period does not have a fetus, early strengthening of maternal nutrition must be done so that the mother's body is ready to undergo the prenatal phase for fetal development, which then continues in the infant phase - toddlerhood to adolescence.