Pregnancy is one of the most special and, at the same time, challenging phases in one’s life. It requires not only prenatal care which is responsible actions of mother, but also extra healthcare measures, to monitor the health of both, woman and child. Unfortunately, in some places in the world antenatal care still suffers from underdevelopment.
In order to help in solving this problem, SolDevelo collaborated with Pathfinder International.
In this article, you will learn about the m4change project and our contribution to Prenatal Care Mobile Support.
Pathfinder International
Pathfinder International, based in the USA, is a global non-profit organization that provides a range of quality health services – from contraception and maternal and neonatal health to HIV prevention and AIDS care and treatment. It focuses on reproductive health and family planning. The organization operates in more than 25 developing countries throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Project m4Change
In 2013-2015 Pathfinder International had been working on a program called m4change in Abuja and Nasarawa, Nigeria.
The main focus of the program is a mobile phone (mHealth) system based on Dimagi CommCareHQ. It’s main aim is to support various clinical and education functions at primary healthcare centers. The data collected from the m4change application is stored in the CommCareHQ database hosted by Dimagi.
How it works
As part of Pathfinder’s efforts to promote data use and effective planning, the organization developed an online reporting portal that provides access to a user-friendly data dashboard. Through the dashboard key stakeholders can access data for facility and aggregate level data analysis. Pathfinder also recognizes the power of using data for improved supervision.
CommCare data collected by Pathfinder and the University of Washington have been compared across sites to explore protocol and workflow data. Supervisors would use this data to analyze anomalies and improve care quality by implementing changes.
SMS reminders have been shown to improve antenatal care attendance and skilled birth delivery rates in many African countries. The m4Change project is based on these findings. It uses SMS to alert women if they miss antenatal care appointments and encourage them to come back to care. Additionally, health workers receive SMS alerts to follow up on women’s birth plans and to advertise postnatal care services.
How we helped
SolDevelo team was responsible for developing the dashboard for report views, data extraction from CommCare Databases, and also communication with third-party bank system.
What we achieved
- Formally launched in 20 health facilities in Nasarawa and Abuja states.
- Nearly 13,000 women registered for antenatal care using the CommCare mobile application.
- 350 health workers trained in the CommCare application.
- Nearly 500 infants received immunizations at birth.
- 555 women received SMS messages after a missed prenatal appointment.
Technologies used
