As you can see, health workers really do save lives. Watch the video about how they are part of the solution.

Many mothers in India face exactly the same issues as Kunta.

Women like Suganu.

Suganu has six children; the oldest is 25 and the youngest, Tikmgeri, is 10 months old.

When Tikmgeri was born he weighed just 2kg (babies under 2.5kg are considered to have low birth weight, which increases the baby's risk of complications).

The health worker believes Tikmgeri was born underweight because Suganu can only afford to eat simple grain based meals with very little fruit, vegetables and meat which provide essential nutrients.

Suganu was also a young mother (although she doesn't know her exact age, she believes she was married at 15 and had a child not long after).  As she has grown older and had more children, the health worker believes she hasn't allowed herself enough time between pregnancies for her body to recover properly.

The good news is Tikmgeri was born in the local hospital, thanks to the encouragement of the health worker (her previous five children were all born at home). The health worker also taught Suganu about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and explained that the traditional practice of feeding a newborn baby a mixture of spice, sugar and water is not the best thing to do.

Happily, Tikmgeri is now 10 months old and is slowly increasing his weight.

Women like Anarkali.

Anarkali's face cannot hide the hardships she's faced. She's lost three children all in their first 12 months of life. Anarkali didn't have her babies immunised out of fear they would catch a fever, however it was a fever - and potentially an illness that they could have been immunised against - that took her three children's lives.

Around three years ago, Anarkali fell pregnant again and gave birth to a little girl, Komal, who is now two and half years old. Anakali and Komal are new to the village; they have recently come to live with Anakarli's family after Anarkali decided to leave her husband who she says wasn't looking after her and their little girl.  The health worker in the village noticed how small Komal looked in comparison to other children. Worried, she weighed Komal and discovered she was just 5 kgs. A healthy girl that age should have been around 15kg.

Now thanks to the encouragement and advice from the health worker, Anarkali takes Komal for check ups each week and she is now fully vaccinated. The health worker also educated Anarkali on what foods Komal should be eating to help her continue to gain weight; foods like banana and porridge which provide good nutrition but are still affordable to buy. The health worker also helped Anarkali see that she had to take extra care in keeping Komal healthy by doing things like not letting Komal walk around without shoes, due to the unclean conditions in the slum area where they live.

Women like Salma.

Salma lost her first son when he was only four years old. He died from diarrhoea, such an easily preventable childhood illness. She didn't visit the health worker because she believed her son was sick because he was possessed by evil spirits.

Instead her family and friends told her to see a witch doctor who told Salma to give her child homemade remedies to rid the evil spirits. When this didn't work, Salma took her son to a rural village where her parents lived, trying to take him away from the environment that was making him sick. Unfortunately without the appropriate treatment her son passed away.

When Salma's second child Sandeep became sick with diarrhoea recently, she was scared that the same thing might happen. The health worker in her village listened to her story and encouraged Salma to visit the Save the Children mobile health clinic. Here he was examined by Dr Anita and provided with oral rehydration salts to help his recovery. Salma was also counselled on the importance of good hygiene for Sandeep to prevent diarrhoea in the future.

As you can see, health workers really do save lives.  Read more about how they are part of the solution.