Wired mothers – use of mobile phones to improve maternal and neonatal health in Zanzibar

project summary

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 are: 1.To investigate attendance to routine primary health care appointments amongst wired and non wired women. 2. To investigate the level of facility based deliveries amongst wired and non-wired women. 3.To investigate the morbidity amongst wired and non-wired women. 4. To investigate the quality of services provided to wired and non-wired women. 5. To investigate neonatal morbidity and mortality amongst children born by wired and non-wired mothers.