m-SMS MOTHER CARE

The (m-SMS MOTHER CARE) provides solutions of bridging antenatal care information health gaps, by easing access and information flow to vulnerable and marginalized expectant urban &rural  poor women and young mothers to be linked up  to digital health platform from the nearest health care center possible via SMS prompts using a simple mobile phone.

There is high infant and mortality rates in Uganda,atleast 16 women die every day in Uganda from pregnancy-related complications, especially those from very remote , vulnerable and marginalized poor communities where antenatal care services are very limited and therefore our innovative strategic remedy serves the best alternative to reach out to hard-to- reach areas by use of digital health messages linked up to mothers mobile phones which are user-friendly and easily accessed by all categories of populations especially the majority poor ones in rural villages.

Therefore, empowering at least 5000 mums with digital health packages that include improved maternal and infant health outcomes such as antenatal care, Nutrition, HIV/AIDS in Pregnancy, Exclusive breast-feeding, immunization calendars, information on fetal and child development messages should be sent twice a week to their mobile phones as reminders for their appointments, adherence and follow up schedules.

MDK CONSERV CONSULT AFRICA LTD, through its project called mobile- SMS MOTHER CARE (m-SMS MOTHER CARE), has a community based health approach, in which community health volunteers, trained community -linkage facilitators and counselors who have championed the noble cause of helping poor rural expectant mothers with necessary antenatal health tool-kits and information packages that these mothers must receive via SMS from the Nearest community health centers.

The program has linked up with village health teams, community health centers and all the expectant mothers to share their experiences ,carried out the health needs assessment exercise and finally came up with an innovative digital solution of informing mothers about the expected  antenatal care services that can be received from all the nearby health centers and where possible their  proper referral points of service  using a designed  SMS digital Health Platform to alert and remind all rural poor expectant mothers about the services they can get from these centers, like  for adherence ,proper appointments and follow ups via their simple mobile phones.

We operate a digital health platform that connects mums with lifesaving knowledge and referral to better antenatal care services incase things become worse and advanced health care is needed. The information provided to these rural poor expectant mothers is completely free of charge, they only need to be registered with the program and health information like antenatal care, nutrition, HIV/AIDS in pregnancy, PMCT, Exclusive breast-feeding, immunization, fetal movements and child development SMS are sent to these urban and rural poor mothers at least twice in a week.

How it works

Mothers registers for service, signs up for SMS for free at local health center or in a community, a mother starts receiving SMS via Text messages, telling her to increase health seeking behaviors from a near-by health center.

The mother is able to text a trained Helpdesk agent with questions like when should I start visiting your center, what can  I eat , I have complications what should do?

A triage  digital Desk is created, a help desk agent screens all the received messages by Natural language Processing(NLP) that can be able to categorize the intent of thousands of user questions forwarded like I have virginal pains, abdominal pains

Then a mother will be sent for further care by a helpdesk agent or referred to the nearest health care center, a digital file is shared with service providers at the center about the coming of this patient as she attends or visits the health center.

Lastly the mother receives the care that they need and continue to receive SMS from this service.

Connecting expectant mothers and their babies facing life-threatening clinical conditions to the closest, well equipped facility should be the ideal strategic position for this project.

5000 mothers will be enrolled across 250 health center facilities in the urban and rural poor areas of central Uganda.

Improved Uptake of antenatal health care services as messages will be disseminated in communities.

Nutrition messages among expectant mothers will improve tremendously

HIV/AIDS in Pregnancy and PMCT services will be provided to these poor mothers than before.

Exclusive breast-feeding to young newborns will increase drastically

Immunization campaigns will trickle down to the grass root levels and a big turn-up will be realized (75%) increase will be attained in child health development.

Infant and Maternal mortality rates will reduce and the 16 deaths registered everyday among delivering mothers will lower up to at least 5 per day hence achieving the MDG5 goal of the United nations. 

The team is committed to advance  program activities through various approaches, energetic fresh and young graduate engineers and medical practioners  are among the people on the team that have championed a campaign of helping an expectant mum deep in remote village to be able to access antenatal care services using  digital health SMS PROMPTS via their mobile phones. 

More collaboration and partnerships with other similar CBOs will be strengthened to improve and increase our funding levels for sustainability future benefits of the project.

Lobbying mechanisms for more grants from national, regional and internationally will be encouraged among the program leadership activities, to make sure stable funding is realized, as a way of taking this project to next level of performance.

Involving key stake-holders Like Government, Ministry of health (MOH), reproductive health programs, community leaders and elders, religious and cultural elements within communities to champion campaigns of using digital health platforms to ease and simplify the long distances covered while  seeking for medical treatment,  the ignorance and high poverty levels among majority folks who cannot afford advanced hospital facilities ,all these leads for  better, simple and innovative strategic platform  to provide a long-term solution for  antenatal care services across all corners via simple SMS prompts at ease.

There is high infant and mortality rates in Uganda,atleast 16 women die every day in Uganda from pregnancy-related complications, especially those from very remote , vulnerable and marginalized poor communities where antenatal care services are very limited and therefore our innovative strategic remedy serves the best alternative to reach out to hard-to- reach areas by use of digital health messages linked up to mothers mobile phones which are user-friendly and easily accessed by all categories of populations especially the majority poor ones in rural villages.

This is the very reason as to why we are applying for this support ,so as to be able to address the issue of maternal and infant mortality rates that are so alarming in Uganda ,so with the help of this simple technology of using the readily available mobile phones we hope this death rate will reduce ,if many mothers turn up  in attending to nearest health centers.