The Fogarty International Center’s newsletter “Global Health Matters”, reports that women’s lives are often threatened during pregnancy and childbirth by complications such as hemorrhage, sepsis, eclampsia, and obstructed labor in Bangladesh.
Researcher Shegufta Sikder working with a team from Johns Hopkins University is developing a mobile health system to reduce these risks and improve emergency obstetric care for Bangladeshi mothers.
The mobile phone-based platform called “mCARE” is a pregnancy and neonatal health information system to connect rural health workers and facilities with pregnant women and their newborns. The system includes automated reminders for antenatal, postnatal and essential newborn care, notification of labor and birth, referral and decision-making support for rural women and families.
In the country’s rural northwest where the mCARE study was focused, few mothers deliver babies at hospitals. “Seventy-five percent of women give birth at home where skilled medical personnel are absent and unfortunately most women are at home when complications occur,” said Sikder. “Some women can reach health facilities when they have health problems, but we were interested in knowing whether these facilities are able to address life-threatening conditions.”
The researchers evaluated emergency obstetric care capabilities at 14 high-volume private and public health facilities while also identifying ideal patient referral locations for the mCARE system. The study that was partially funded by Fogarty determined that there was the need to improve referrals and that mobile health technology could play a key role.
The project is now in its pilot phase and Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health has approved scale-up. The next step will be to measure resulting improvements through a study involving 800 pregnant women. The mCARE team will continue to work with Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and partners in the country mPower-Health and JiVitA.