MAMA works where moms need us.
Global
MAMA is engaging a growing, global community to strengthen global capability of mobile health information programs for moms.
MAMA is encouraging the exchange of expertise, ideas, resources, best practices and lessons learned among peer programs that are delivering health information to new and expectant mothers with mobile phones.
Our goal is to contribute to this community to support optimal mobile health services for moms and reach as many of them as possible.
Messages for Moms
For example, one of MAMA’s first shared resources is adaptable health messages.
MAMA is providing free, adaptable mobile health messages for programs that use mobile phones to reach new and expectant mothers.
These messages are adaptable, stage-based and available in written and audio formats. MAMA messages include timely information and reminders and can be translated and modified to address specific needs in a way that is culturally sensitive and relevant.
MAMA adaptable health messages are free and available here.
Local
MAMA is also working with partners in Bangladesh, India and South Africa. These countries also have dynamic mobile health ecosystems that have the potential to link our work to other relevant services for low-income moms with mobile phones, such as emergency transport and health service reminders.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, MAMA’s experienced local partners are designing strategies to engage low-income, at-risk mothers and their families through mobile phones.
Though Bangladesh has achieved a significant reduction in maternal mortality in the past decade, maternal mortality remains high. Delivering stage-based health messages through mobile phones can increase care-seeking and care-giving behaviors that are essential to reducing maternal morbidity and mortality.
To test the delivery of health information via mobile phones in Bangladesh, MAMA is piloting a program that delivers audio health messages twice a week to 2,000 women and mobile subscribers in their families and communities.
MAMA Bangladesh is pilot-testing a brand and logo for its audience and, once it is finalized, MAMA will market the service across the country.
MAMA is working to reach 500,000 women in Bangladesh during the next three years.
DNet is coordinating the implementation of MAMA Bangladesh.
India
As of 2008, India had the most maternal deaths of any country.ii According to the Indian government, these deaths account for 15 percent of all deaths of women of reproductive age.
India also has one of the world’s largest populations of mobile phone users with 865 million subscribers.
MAMA and its partners are preparing for the complex environment, multiple languages and collaborative opportunities possible in India.
MAMA is pursuing a landscape analysis and mapping effort early in 2012 to assess how to reach low-income, at-risk mothers and their families in India.
South Africa
In South Africa, MAMA is focused on working with local partners to address national health priorities and needs.
Maternal mortality is high in South Africa, with a fourfold increase in maternal deaths in the last decade, due in part to the high prevalence of HIV.
Mobile phone use is also high. More than 84 percent of adults in South Africa report that they own a mobile phone.
MAMA messages in South Africa will encourage earlier antenatal care, help HIV-positive mothers understand how to prevent transmission to their babies and encourage exclusive breastfeeding for all mothers.
In South Africa MAMA aims to reach 500,000 women and household decision makers through their mobile phones. The service is expected to launch by Mother’s Day, May 2012.
An initial consortium of partners – Praekelt Foundation, Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute and Cell-life – will be implementing the MAMA program in South Africa, with Praekelt Foundation serving as the lead organization.
Photo courtesy of Johnson & Johnson