{"id":55458,"date":"2013-07-26T15:13:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T22:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldvision.org\/?p=55458"},"modified":"2021-08-15T16:19:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T23:19:15","slug":"mobile-phones-help-deliver-healthy-babies-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldvision.org\/health-news-stories\/mobile-phones-help-deliver-healthy-babies-afghanistan","title":{"rendered":"Mobile phones help deliver healthy babies in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Four years ago, Nafas was pregnant with her first child. At seven months, she went into labor and, like many women in rural Afghanistan, she gave birth at home. The traditional birth attendant who was there to help Nafas didn’t have the skill or equipment to meet her needs, so the baby died.<\/p>\n

“When I lost my first baby, I got so sad and thought I never will be able to become a mother,” Nafas says.<\/p>\n

Her sister had a very different birth experience.<\/p>\n

Says Nafas, “My sister was pregnant, and a community health worker visited her twice a week and provided consultation. She delivered a healthy baby in a clinic.<\/p>\n

“At that time, I promised myself that if I become pregnant again, I will consult with a community health worker and go to the hospital for delivery.”<\/p>\n

The community health worker who visited Nafas’ sister brought advanced diagnostic and medical services to her rural community through a simple tool — her mobile phone.<\/p>\n

Through a World Vision project funded by USAID, the local health worker was trained and equipped with mobile health technology, called mHealth.<\/p>\n

She could use her cellphone to send and receive information on a particular patient, including progress reports, medical records, and reminders about appointments and treatments. She could also access a wealth of medical information and connect to consulting physicians.<\/p>\n

Three years after losing her first child, Nafas had another chance at motherhood.<\/p>\n

This time, she sought out Nasima, the community health worker, for regular checkups and advice. Nasima used the information that was at her fingertips, through the mobile phone software. When she detected a problem in the seventh month, she referred Nafas for skilled care at the Herat hospital.<\/p>\n

Nafas delivered a healthy baby in early May, about a month early.<\/p>\n

A ground-breaking technology and partnership<\/h2>\n

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a>, Grameen Foundation<\/a>, and Dimagi<\/a>, a tech company that supports healthcare in developing countries, are partners with World Vision in creating and deploying mHealth.  It is a version of an open-source mobile solution, MOTECH Suite, funded by Gates.<\/p>\n

The shared framework of MOTECH Suite minimizes costs of software development, operations, and support. It also accelerates learning and the development of best practices, which ultimately save more lives.<\/p>\n

“I think if Nasima and the mHealth system were not in our village, and if neonatal assistance did not exist in the hospital, my baby would not be alive,” Nafas says.<\/p>\n

“There was a lot of coordination by mobile phone so we could receive services on time. Now my baby is being cared for in an incubator, I feed him with my milk, and I learned Kangaroo Care (skin-to-skin contact for pre-term babies),” she says.<\/p>\n

Project results benefit new moms<\/h2>\n

The mHealth<\/a> pilot project in Nafas’ community has shown good results:<\/p>\n