Automating Message Delivery through Mobile Phones to Expectant Mothers

Abstract

Ethiopia is among the nations with very high maternal and child mortality rates. The latest
available estimates show that there are 5.90 maternal deaths per 1,000 live births. Though
progress has been made in the reduction of mortalities as compared with the previous years
estimates, much effort needs to be done yet to meet the ambitious Millennium Development
Goals which aim for the reduction of maternal mortality by three quarters and child mortality by
two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015.
Accordingly, among a multitude of interventions underway in the country to meet the
Millennium Development Goals, one key component is to understand and address key barriers of
communication between different service delivery points in the primary health care unit (Primary
Hospital, Health Center, Health Post and Community) in rural areas. Currently, the
communication between different service delivery points is either non-existent or paper-based
which makes it inefficient and affects the speed and effectiveness of Maternal and Neonatal
Child Health (MNCH) services. The trend to use communication technologies has shown
promising results to meet the challenge.
In this regard, the mobile technology has come with the unique potential that it has already
become a routine part of most peoples’ everyday lives. It is also becoming increasingly
affordable and accessible. Required infrastructure to support its easy use and maintenance is also
available even in rural areas. With the aim of sharing experiences and lessons learnt, this paper
reports on a project work that was conducted to explore the potential utilization of mobile phone
technologies to improve communication between service providers for a more effective MNCH
service delivery in rural primary health care units in Ethiopia. Encouraging results were obtained
in terms of demonstrating the potential applications of m-health to increase access and uptake of
priority MNCH services even in remote rural areas.