Today when healthcare has become more of a necessity than luxury, access to medical services are still negligible in the developing nations. Women who are pregnant are worst affected. About 800 females die each day, globally due to complications of childbirth, which are actually preventable if proper treatment is meted. But, some developing regions lack medical care, while others are too far or expensive that can be afforded by people.
Most of the maternal deaths are due to infections, unsafe abortions, severe bleeding, high blood pressures, problems of birthing etc. To educate females about pregnancy, and related information, the mobile health has stepped in, which is also called mHealth. It has become an essential service for developing nations. mHealth is available on mobile devices that practice public health awareness by spreading information about pregnancy via texts, apps, or internet.
Some mobile applications have been launched, while supplement care and consultation through phone, benefiting those who are need of healthcare, but cannot access it physically. Here are 8 mobile based applications, which are revolutionizing pregnancy care for developing nations.
1. Safe Delivery
An innovative mobile application, Safe Delivery involves health workers from remote areas in helping women with non-routine births. The workers are provided simple instructions for the services. Their motto is to bring quality care and lessen infant and maternal mortality rates, and increasing the knowledge of birthing attendant’s in times of crisis. It was launched in Ghana and Ethiopia.
The app uses animated videos for dispensing information to health workers. The details focus on what to do in event of birthing complication such as prolonged labor of a non-breathing newborn. Safe Delivery also has a feature of flashcards, so the attendant can assess their own knowledge out of emergency consequences. The app is available in regional languages apart from English.
2. GiftedMom
A mobile health provider from Africa, GiftedMom works with NGOs in providing free mobile services to ‘would be’ mother or females with newborns. It offers informational text messages, health services to women. The app was introduced in Cameroon, where 7,000 or more females die every year because of pregnancy complications.
In order to fight maternal mortality rates, the app allows those in need to subscribe to it and get free text messages, which educate them on vaccines, reproductive health, and prenatal care. GiftedMom has a user base of 6,700 mothers in Nigeria and Cameroon.
3. Safe Pregnancy and Birth
One of the award-winning app specialized for expectant mothers from developing nations, the Safe Pregnancy and Birth induces knowledge to healthcare providers and ‘would be’ moms on maternal health. The app concentrates on patient monitoring, data collection, appointment reminders, and health educations.
It is available in Spanish and English language, informing about prenatal health concerns, and things to do during an emergency situation. Safe Pregnancy and Birth also relays step-by-step instructions to community health works about performing tasks such as treating women in shock, taking blood pressure, stopping post-birth bleeding, and others.
4. Zero Mothers Die
Another mobile application, Zero Mothers Die services women in Africa, prominently from Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, Gabon, and Zambia. The providers give women small mobile phones at no cost, with goal to curb inaccessible maternal healthcare. The women receive text messages about healthy pregnancy, safe birth, and personal wellness.
The app also encourages them to inform other females in the community about the same. The phones have free calling minutes that females can utilize for calling local healthcare providers during an emergency.
5. MAMA
Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) is an app that sends free health messages to expectant or new mothers in India, Bangladesh, Nigeria and South Africa. Females receive culturally sensitive and stage-based texts on mobile phone, at least two to three times in a week.
The facts sent empower women with health knowledge they often do not know. These texts focus on warming signs, encouragement, and reminded reflecting motherhood and its experiences. The users also gain information on general health tips.
6. Maymay
In Myanmar, infant and maternal mortality rates are higher than its neighboring regions. The Maymay application is assisting in sending tailored heath alerts to pregnant women, every week. These texts base on tips for healthy and successful pregnancy. The app also enables women to find doctors in their locality, filtering by medical institution and specialty.
Maymay was created by the Population Services International, and gives array of tips on early symptoms and signs of pregnancy, nutritional advice, and suggestions for safe baby products- needed during the female’s later stage in pregnancy.
7. Suyojana
To bridge the gap between expectant mothers and medical facilities in the developing nations, the Auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) have come up with Suyojana mobile app, which offers comprehensive maternal care. It is responsible for activities like emergency assessment, immunizations, and referrals. The ANMs can stay abreast of medical knowledge and assure accurate health monitoring and assessing for women.
It imparts a clinical-decision support system guiding users through motherhood stages. The app has medical records of patients and their status so that the details are put in databases, which could be analyzed later, helping identification of regional trends, and enhance services for specific communities.
8. Mobile Midwife
Pre-recorded voice messages and texts are used by the Mobile Midwife to provide better access to healthcare to women in Ghana. This information allows pregnant women, their families and new mothers to avail details of motherhood stages.
The app is in conjunction with Nurses’ Application that medical providers utilize for collecting patient date and then upload records of same to a holistic database. The app makes providers to identify those who need medical services and track patient care.