A mobile messaging service for pregnant women and mothers of newborns to enable access to information, encourage positive care-seeking behaviour and healthy behaviour at the household level.
Pregnant women living in low-resource settings in Benin often lack access to essential information about pregnancy, childbirth preparation and best practices for caring for their newborns. This can lead not only to the perpetuation of harmful practices but also to missed opportunities for positive care behaviours. Digital health interventions can bridge the gap in health information, which can lead to better health behaviours at the household level, stimulate demand for care and use of services, and connect families to appropriate care in formal health facilities, thus contributing to improved maternal and newborn health outcomes.
Taking advantage of the increased penetration of mobile phone coverage, as well as the growing number of mobile device owners throughout Benin, Plan International Benin, PlanBØRNEfonden and Maternity Foundation have developed, through the Digital Innovation in Maternal and Newborn Health project, a mobile messaging service for pregnant women and mothers of newborns to enable access to information, encourage positive care-seeking behaviour and healthy behaviour at the household level. Messaging services that allow pregnant women to access information and that include reminders for care-seeking have proven effective in increasing antenatal care-seeking behaviour.
The Digital Innovation in Maternal and Newborn Health project builds on the positive experiences of other countries and aims to test the extent to which SMS and interactive voice messaging (IVR) services can contribute to positive care-seeking behaviour. The project was funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Danida) and ran for two years, from October 2019 to December 2021.
Outcomes:
- Pregnant women, mothers of newborns and their partners have access to essential information on pregnancy, childbirth preparation and best practices for caring for their newborn on their mobile phones.
- Pregnant women, mothers of newborns and their partners improve their knowledge of maternal and newborn health and increase their confidence in seeking appropriate health care behaviours.
Impact:
- Good behaviours for better pregnancy and newborn monitoring were observed. With the use of voicemail, users not only increased their knowledge but also adopted healthy behaviours in pregnancy and newborn care. Harmful practices in pregnancy monitoring, such as taking herbal teas, were gradually abandoned by the women in the intervention group thanks to the awareness-raising via voicemail.
- Respondents’ knowledge and attitudes about baby monitoring in the intervention group have also improved. The lessons received by the women and men using the voicemail have strengthened their knowledge and induced a change in their behaviour for the well-being of the newborn.
- The development of listening and proximity behaviours with young children by parents has been strengthened thanks to the awareness-raising messages deployed by the project, encouraging users to become familiar with young children in view of the benefits of these behaviours.
- Surveys of both study groups showed that raising awareness of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their husbands via voicemail is a very relevant and useful initiative in pregnancy and newborn care.
