Two trained research assistants (RAs) non-medical staff,
supervised the randomisation procedure at every ANC. On
each clinic day, consented women that met the inclusion
criteria were given serial numbers with allotted treatment
group based on their arrival time. Only the statistician and
RAs had access to the list of numbers used to prevent
clinicians’ influence on the randomisation. Each subject
opens the opaque envelope in the presence of the RAs, and
the assigned treatment group was recorded on the woman’s
medical record file. The research protocol was closely
monitored by the RAs to avoid bias and also, to ensure that
all subjects were assigned to treatment groups