Antenatal care (ANC) refers to the routine care delivered to expectant mothers following conception to the onset of labor. The inadequate utilization of ANC is a factor in the high rates of maternal and neonatal mortality in Uganda. Women in rural areas of Uganda are two times less likely to attend ANC than urban women. They usually register late for ANC attendance and do not complete the required four visits.

Working with priority audience representatives, district teams and the USAID SBCA team, S4P Group utilized HCD approaches to develop and implement a Family Health campaign in 21 districts, The designed interventions were targeting improvement in the uptake of health behaviors for seven thematic areas one of which was Maternal and Child Health. Baby showers were adopted as one of the main interventions for this campaign.

A baby shower is small party prepared in celebration of a mother that is about to have a baby. S4P Group organized baby showers to celebrate mothers that had achieved eight antenatal care visits in some of the Family Health campaign districts. This was in a bid to encourage other mothers in the villages to embrace antenatal care and birth preparedness and to encourage them to deliver at the health facility for the safety of both the mother and baby.

In districts where the baby showers were embraced, a massive increase in seeking of ANC services was observed. Health facility staff shared their appreciation of this innovative way of promoting behavior change and enthusiastically joined in the celebrations. for the areas where it was acceptable, they caused much excitement among the women and in the community. Pregnant women were encouraged to complete eight ANC visits so that they could join the baby showers and receive gifts in preparation for their newborn babies. An average of 20 baby showers were conducted during each month of the Family Health campaign.