Mobile Health Application to Strengthen Postnatal Care: A Case of Tanzania

Abstract

Postnatal care (PNC) refers to the care given to the mother and the newborn from the time of delivery until six weeks of age. Despite attempts, postnatal care (PNC) delivery still falls short of meeting mothers’ and newborns’ needs. With approximately 90% of mobile phone users coming from underdeveloped nations, there is more room for improved maternal and neonatal health interventions. With the aid of mobile technologies, this study attempts to boost PNC adoption. Studies showed that the case study area, Tanzania, had little evidence of PNC intervention frameworks and mobile applications. First, it was determined which factors affected how well health systems handled postpartum care (PNC). Data were gathered from health facilities at every level in Mbeya, Tanzania. Following the examination of descriptive statistics, postpartum women had lower levels of satisfaction with the advice given to them by healthcare professionals regarding clinical attendance (mean = 2.81). After giving birth, postpartum mothers who remained in the medical centre longer had an 85% lower likelihood of being happy with the health system. Higher educated postpartum women had less favourable sentiments about PNC delivery. The findings pointed to the necessity of raising PNC awareness in order to enhance both health worker performance and the well-being of a mother and her newborn. These findings were used to create a framework that also included PNC performance indicators from the WHO and services that might help the mother and the health worker. Using JavaScript’s React native technology and the SQLite database engine, the Afya Mama mobile application was created. This study is of considerable importance to communities in Tanzania as a whole as it improves the uptake of PNC