How mobile technology devices improved maternal health services in Nigeria —Study

<p>EXPERTS have said a rapid short message sent from a mobile phone to a central server and connected to transport providers and health facility managers is effective in increasing the access of pregnant women to skilled emergency obstetric services in rural Nigeria.</p>, <p>In a new study, the researchers said difficulty in transportation to access skilled providers has been cited repeatedly as a major barrier to utilisation of emergency obstetric care in Nigeria, adding that a mobile phone application can be used to connect pregnant women with emergency transport and obstetric care in rural areas of the country.</p>, <p>It was in the March edition of the BMC Pregnancy Childbirth and it was titled ‘Texting for life: a mobile phone application to connect pregnant women with emergency transport and obstetric care in rural Nigeria.’</p>, <p>The researchers had implemented the digital health innovation named Text4Life in 20 communities in two predominantly rural local government areas of Edo State, in southern Nigeria, as part of a larger implementation project aimed at improving the access of rural women to skilled pregnancy care.</p>, <p>The communities had no secondary or tertiary health care facilities in the immediate proximity, although transfers can be made to secondary or tertiary facilities in other locations which are between 20km and 173km.</p>, <p>The Text4Life allowed women to send a brief message from their mobile phone to a server linked to primary health care (PHC) facilities and to access pre-registered transport owners.</p>, <p>Pregnant women were registered and taught to text short messages to a server from their mobile phones or those of a friend or relative when and if they experience complications.</p>, <p>The study found that over the 18-month period, 56 women out of 1,620 registered women (3.5 percent) texted the server, requesting emergency transportation.</p>, <p>In addition, of this number, 51 were successfully transported to the PHC facilities, 46 successfully treated at the PHC and five