INSPIRATION FROM ACROSS THE

GLOBE: MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES

22 September 2015

Child Count +
By using SMS, Community
Healthcare Workers are able to
register patients and report
their health status to a
centralized dashboard that
provides a real-time view of the
communities health.
How?
The platform allows for two-way
communication between community
health workers, and uses algorithms to
guide community health workers on
patient diagnosis and treatment based
on data entered. Already, in Sauri,
Kenya, Child Count+ is being used by
over 100 Community Health Workers
to monitor over 9,500 children. These
efforts are being expanded across
Africa into other MVP sites, and the
technology is being continually
advanced to better meet community
needs.

http://healthmarketinnovations.org/program/
childcount

Comm Care

A project to help strengthen and

monitor community health
programs by building mobile
tools for Community Health
Workers.

What and how?

A health worker can use the CommCare
app on a mobile phone to quiz women
she meets on their knowledge and level
of preparedness for childbirth and caring
for a newborn. CommCare provides a
list of emergency/danger signs to look
for and their respective interventions as
well as a safe pregnancy checklist, & a
list of suggested practices to ensure a
safe delivery.Once responses to
questions have been recorded, it will
display a score and play a message,
giving immediate feedback to the mother
and helping identify weak points for
which the health worker can then
provide better education.

http://sites.dimagi.com/download-case-study-3

Patchwork

Working with frontline staff to

enable multi-agency working
and collaboration

What and why

Patchwork is a web-based app that
connects practitioners across many
agencies around their shared client,
revealing the hidden network and
supporting communication and
collaboration.
This easy to use tool helps break
down the traditional barriers between
agencies, enabling more joined up
support for vulnerable people of all
ages.
Patchwork is being used by maternal
health professionals in Australia.
.

http://patchworkhq.com

VISUAL GUIDES

There are a lot of things to

remember when youre
pregnant or a new mom.
Text4baby makes it easy to get
important information, and its
free

What and how?

Pratt Design Incubator collaborated to
create tools to train and support a new
strata of local health care workers in
72 villages in Africa and Asia. CHWs
will be trained and equipped to
perform 70% of necessary services
through household visits - shown to be
the most effective means for reducing
infant mortality. These visual guides
could be translated into mobile
versions.

https://bkaccelerator.com

Week by Week

A simple website that gives mums to be

an understanding of what is happening
to the development of their baby week to
week.

What and how?

A simple website delivering bitesize
useful information to soon to be mums.
Similar information could easily be
delivered by SMS message simply.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/where-wework/asia/india/sdp-improving-family-health-inbihar

EasyPeasy App

EasyPeasy is an app that sends game

ideas to parents of young children, to
help develop the skills that will prepare
children for school, and beyond. The app
provides parents with simple, fun games
to play with their children, aged two to
five, helping them build their character.

What and how?

Parents can connect to practitioners and
ask questions through the app. They
receive SMS based information and
advice. Parents can connect on a 1-2-1
basis with a practitioner and share
experiences through the app. Health
workers and parents can see data on
their progress.
The app allows parents to connect and
build support networks.

http://www.easypeasyapp.com

MiHope

MiHope is based on an integrated

empowerment model which looks to
engage people at three different levels.
Firstly, education through the provision
of relevant and culturally sensitive
information, secondly, through personal
mentoring support and lastly, through
social engagement.

What and how?

Global development charity Tearfund are
working with Nimbus Consulting, using
mobile phones for a three tier approach
to maternal health, with a specific
emphasis on male involvement. Whilst
women in developing countries need
quality information to make empowered
decisions about their health and that of
their newborn child, the need to include
the father is often forgotten. Positive
male support can play a huge role in the
health and wellbeing of the family.

http://nimbus.mobi

JANMA CLEAN BIRTH

KIT

JANMA, a $2-$5 clean birth kit,

to help hospitals and nonprofit
organizations prevent infection
at time of birth and reduce
maternal and infant mortality.

What and how?

The kit contains simple tools
recommended by the World Health
Organization to provide sanitation and
sterility at the time of childbirth, which
not only saves the lives of mother and
baby, but also helps ensure a healthy
and happy start to life.
JANMA components are in a
biodegradable jute bag that can be
reused by new mothers as a purse.

http://www.ayzh.com

TEXT4BABY

There are a lot of things to

remember when youre
pregnant or a new mum.
Text4baby makes it easy to get
important information, and its
free
What and how?
Women who text BABY (or BEBE for
Spanish) to 511411 receive free text
messages three times per week, timed
to their due date or their babys birth
date, through pregnancy and up until
the babys first birthday. Text4baby
sends personalized messages directly
to you, and the texts have information
you can trust because they are
developed by experts from all over the
country. There is also an app that
provides additional information about
babys development, pregnancy,
childcare tips, and more.

https://text4baby.org/about/text4baby

Lifespring

LifeSpring Maternal Hospital is

an Indian hospital network that
specializes in high quality
maternal healthcare for lowincome women. It's now the
largest maternity hospital group
in South India.
What and how?
Lifespring's model hinges on small,
20-25 bed hospitals that specialize in the
most needed services (delivery,
caesarian, hysterectomy), while
outsourcing/referring non-core areas
(lab, pharmacy, complex cases), leading
to high quality standards, lower costs (as
little as 1/5 the cost of big private
hospitals), and increased access. They
also have higher deliveries/doctor,
supported by a team of nurses/admins;
subsidize the neediest through allinclusive bundled service, tiered pricing,
and donor birth sponsorships; employ
community outreach workers and run
free monthly health camps.

http://www.lifespring.in

Baby Buddy

Baby Buddyis a free mobile phone app

for parents and parents-to-be with
personalised content approved by
doctors and midwives that spans from
pregnancy right through to the first six
months after birth.

What and how?

When you download Baby Buddy you
get to create your own digital Buddy (an
avatar) that supports you on your
journey. There are over a million
different Buddies you can create.
You can find out important information,
ask questions and connect with other
parents in a similar situation.
The app is funded by the National
Lottery and is endorsed by the National
Health Service in the UK.

The app is also available on the web.

https://app.bestbeginnings.org.uk/web/lets-getstarted

360 Degree Approach

In Bihar, northern India, BBC Media

Action is working as part of the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation-funded
Ananya programme which aims
toreducechild mortality, improve
maternal health and reduce infectious
diseasesin the state.

What and how?

The programme of work has three
strands:
A mobile academy - involving two
innovative mobile phone services for
health workers.
Taking it to the mass media - humorous
and engaging TV and radio adverts
about critical maternal health issues.
Community mobilisation - street theatre
and listener clubs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/where-wework/asia/india/sdp-improving-family-health-inbihar

Action Aid

Action Aid are participating in a project

funded by the European Commissions
Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection
department (ECHO), aims to provide
basic healthcare, clean drinking water
and livelihoods support to people in 83
settlements who have been displaced by
the conflict situation in the neighbouring
state of Chhattisgarh.

What and how?

The project involves working with
marginalised communities and
creating mobile health camps to train
and support young mums. The women
involved in the project also help to
support other mums in the community.
Action Aid have done a lot of research
on maternal health services, available
on their website.

http://www.actionaid.org.uk/blog/voices/
2013/07/31/breastfeeding-immunisation-andpregnancy-care-healthcare-in-indias-tribal

Motorcycle Ambulance

Motorcycle and bike ambulances make it

possible to reach otherwise unreachable
mothers.

What and how?

The Ambulance has been developed
to provide transport to and from local
health-centres, providing communities
with the means to take advantage of
distant and widespread health-care
resources. Able to safely and
comfortably carry one patient and an
outreach medical worker, plus
emergency supplies for on-site
treatment, it can greatly reduce the
time taken to get essential and urgent
medical assistance to remote
communities.
.

http://www.eranger.com/The-eRanger-Bikes/
Ambulance.aspx

Additional Research

The following is a list of relevant research that could provide additional insight:

Open IDEO ran a challenge to come up ideas to support maternal health with mobile
technology, there are lots of ideas here: https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/maternalhealth/brief

Further useful research and case studies from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/publications-and-resources/research/reports/improvingmaternal-health-practices

http://www.iicd.org/articles/mhealth-solutions-breaking-barriers-to-improve-access-to-maternalhealthcare

Osocio are a social campagin company that have run number of maternal health campaigns.
Their campaigns are often hard hitting and innovative: http://osocio.org

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has been doing a lot of work to research
the benefits of dierent maternal health innovations and their impact: http://ideas.lshtm.ac.uk

Thank you

WWW.WEAREFUTUREGOV.COM
MATT@WEAREFUTUREGOV.COM