Reproductive Health Working Group > Wired mothers
Wired mothers - use of mobile phones to improve maternal and neonatal health in Zanzibar
Project period: January 2009 - December 2010
Project team:
- Stine Lund (MD, principal investigator)
- Maryam Hemed (MD, Gynaecologist)
- Khadija S. Said (MD, Gynaecologist)
- Rashid Kombo (Statistician)
- Azzah Said (AMO coordinator reproductive and child health, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Zanzibar)
- Mkoko Makundu (MD, Zonal Medical Officer, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Zanzibar)
- Associate Professor Vibeke Rasch (MD, PhD, University of Copenhagen, supervisor)
- Birgitte Bruun Nielsen (MD. PhD University of Copenhagen, supervisor)
Partner institutions:
- Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Zanzibar, Tanzania
- Health Sector Programme Support Zanzibar
- University of Copenhagen
Project description:
The study aims to examine the beneficial impact of use of mobile phones for health care on maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, and to seek innovative ways to ensure access to skilled attendance at delivery through an intervention called "wired mothers". Wired mothers are pregnant women linked to a primary health care unit through use of mobile phones receiving standard sms reminders for care appointments and who can call the primary provider in case of acute or non acute problems. It is also the aim to study the health system's response in relation to obstetric emergencies when using mobile phones to strengthen communication between different levels (from TBA to referral hospital).
Specific objectives:
- To investigate attendance to routine primary health care appointments amongst wired and non wired women;
- To investigate the level of facility based deliveries amongst wired and non-wired women.
- To investigate the morbidity amongst wired and non-wired women
- To investigate the quality of services provided to wired and non-wired women
- To investigate neonatal morbidity and mortality amongst children born by wired and non-wired mothers.
Budget: DKK 3,305,192
