MomConnect

Product Description

MomConnect provides important information to pregnant women, mothers and health care workers and produce strategic information for Maternal and Child Health programmes.

MomConnect has three (3) main objectives:

1) Register each pregnancy at a government health facility;

2) Send stagebased, personalized short message service (SMS) texts to each mom in the registry;

3) Allow women to engage with the health system through help desk tools and feedback services.

* The services are free to the user, and messages are all 11 official South African languages.

Check out this video about MomConnect.

Target SDGs

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being

Target Users (Target Impact Group)

Household

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

Praekelt
Department of Health South Africa & Clinics.

Competitive Landscape

Direct competitors include GiftedMom.

Manufacturing/Building Method

Software Development.

Intellectural Property Type

User Provision Model

Users can dial a free USSD number ( *134*550# ) and their details will be held in a subscription database.

Distributions to Date Status

2 millions Registered users.

Mobile service required

SMS, USSD

Level of coverage needed

N/A. Data/Mobile Internet not required.

Device(s) required

Feature phone.

Additional features required

None.

Permanent network connectivity required (Y/N)

Not required.

Two way communication (Y/N)

Yes. MomConnect includes a helpdesk feature which allows women registered on the system to ask maternal and child health (MCH)-related questions and to provide feedback on health services received at public health clinics.

Usage rate (%)

95% Clinics participating.

Literacy support (Y/N)

Yes; Training materials are available for women and clinics workers by the Department of Health.

Languages available

11 official languages of South Africa.

Operating system and version

N/A

mHealth application

Improve patients access to information and encourage health seeking behaviors; Health education.
Maternal, newborn and child health
Enhancing Processes: Information communication technology

Design Specifications

Subscription - Pregnant women are able to subscribe to a messaging service which gives them useful information and encourage them to register their pregnancy at the Ante Natal Clinic. To this they dial a free USSD number and their details will be held in a subscription database.
Registration - Women attending the Ante Natal Clinic are registered on a central database using a similar USSD Number to the subscription method. Health care workers at the facility will assist women with registration.
Messaging - A number of messages have been developed through consultations between The Department of Health, Health Experts and other organisations with maternal and child health expertise. Messages include antenatal care and accessing care in labour, Diet and Nutrition, Non-pregnancy related Infections, Hypertension, New-born care, Breastfeeding and Immunisation. The messages are tailored to when a women registers, for example a women registering at 19 weeks will receive a different scheduled than a woman registering at 34 weeks. All messages are translated into the 11 South African official languages.
Service Rating - The day after registering at the clinic a pregnant woman is prompted to fill in a survey on their phones by dialing a free USSD number.
Compliments and Complaints - Pregnant women, who are registered on the service, are be able to send a complaint or compliment via SMS.

Product Schematics

Technical Support

To report a technical or security issue, please contact techsupport@praekelt.org.

Replacement Components

N/A

Lifecycle

N/A

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

South Africa is targeting 100 deaths (or less) per 100 000 live births by 2020.

Vetted Performance Status

Unknown.

Safety

N/A

Complementary Technical Systems

None

Academic Research and References

Peter Barron,Yogan Pillay, Antonio Fernandes, Jane Sebidi, Rob Allen, 2016, The MomConnect mHealth initiative in South Africa: Early impact on the supply side of MCH services

Joanne Elizabeth Peter, Peter Barron, Yogan Pillay, 2016, Using mobile technology to improve maternal, child and youth health and treatment of HIV patients

Khou Xiong, Joy Kamunyori, and Jane Sebidi, 2018, The MomConnect helpdesk: how an interactive mobile messaging programme is used by mothers in South Africa

Khou Xiong and Brittany Iskarpatyoti,2017, MomConnect Operational Research: Capacity Building to Increase Registration Rates at Clinics

Christopher Seebregtsi, Peter Barron Gaurang, Tannaiv Peter Benjamin, 2016, MomConnect: an exemplar implementation of the Health Normative Standards Framework in South Africa

“Reach.” n.d. Reach. Accessed June 8, 2024. https://www.reachdigitalhealth.org/

“GiftedMom.Co Is Now Part of TheMamaZone.Com | The Mama Zone.” n.d. Accessed June 8, 2024. https://themamazone.com/gifted-mom/

“ZMD App.” n.d. Zero Mothers Die. Accessed June 8, 2024. http://www.zeromothersdie.org/zmd-app.html

“Goal 3.” n.d. Sdgs.Un.Org. Accessed June 7, 2024. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3

“Product Intellectual Property.” n.d. Githubusercontent.Com. Accessed June 8, 2024. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nevir/readable-licenses/master/markdown/BSD3CLAUSE-LICENSE.md

Xiong, Khou, Joy Kamunyori, and Jane Sebidi. 2018. “The MomConnect Helpdesk: How an Interactive Mobile Messaging Programme Is Used by Mothers in South Africa.” BMJ Global Health 3 (Suppl 2): e000578. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5922474/

N.d. Org.Za. Accessed June 8, 2024. https://www.hst.org.za/publications/South%20African%20Health%20Reviews/11%20MomConnect%20An%20exemplar%20implementation%20of%20the%20Health%20Normative%20Standards%20Framework%20in%20SA.pdf

Compliance with regulations

Unknown

Evaluation methods

Field trials and academic research 1-5.

Other Information

Innovation Working Group (IWG) mobile health (mHealth) Award by the United Nations Foundation
Tech4Good for Africa Award Winner, 2017
Innovative Management Awards 2016, Silver Winner

Implemented by

Project Prana Foundation

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