The problem of maternal and infant mortality is one of the oldest global health problems in the world, with over 800 pregnant women still dying per day from causes that are 97% preventable and about 4 million infant annual deaths from vaccine-prevenatable causes.
It is alarming in Sub Saharan Africa where the risk of death during pregnancy is 1 in 38 as compared to 1 in 3800 in developed countries, and particularly in Cameroon, a pregnant woman dies every hour.
There are 3 main causes of maternal deaths: inadequate hospital supplies, lack of information and lack of a transport solution in rural and disconnected areas.
While the problem of inadequate hospital supplies is being tackled by governments and big pocket NGOs, GiftedMom co-founders Alain Nteff and Conrad Tankou are bridging the gap in information and transport using last mile mobile health solutions.
GiftedMom an Appsafrica Innovation Winner 2015 is a leading mobile health solutions provider in Cameroon and expanding across Africa. They leverage last mile technologies such as SMS to provide pregnant women and new mothers access to health information and strengthen linkages to antenatal care.
They combine preventive SMS notifications & Voice education together with curative GPS integrated tricycle solutions to END preventable maternal and infant deaths.
GiftedMom developed an automated, stage-based and customized SMS notification & Voice education platform that leverages on the high penetration of mobile devices in Africa to remind pregnant women and new mothers on when to come for the next antenatal care service or baby vaccination respectively.
The curative solution involves a GPS Tricycle Transport solution adapted for rural areas which intervenes when a pregnant woman is in distress, bringing her to a health center for attended births and saving her life and that of her baby.