Volunteer drivers to help save mothers' lives through new technology

From left: Health CS Susan Nakhumicha, USAID administrator Samantha Powers, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa and CoG Chairperson Anne Waiguru during the launch of M-Mama program in Nairobi on June 21, 2023. [Boniface Okendo,Standard] There is a silver lining in the fight against maternal and infant death after the Kenya and United States governments and other partners launched an initiative to enable women due for delivery to access hospitals on time. The technology dubbed M-Mama is an emergency referral system that will enable pregnant women and newborns faced with medical complications to swiftly receive transport and appropriate healthcare finicalities on time. The technology comes at a time when about 6,000 women and 35,000 newborns still die annually from complications, according to data from the Ministry of Health. According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022, at least nine in every ten mothers who give birth do so under the care of trained healthcare workers. The survey further revealed that the under-five mortality rate has improved from 52 deaths per 1,000 to 41 deaths per 1,000, and the infant mortality rate from 39 to 32 deaths per 1,000. Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said that postpartum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal deaths. "Many, if not most, of these are preventable if mothers quickly receive skilled care, but hospital fees can be expensive and some women in rural communities will need to walk more than 20 hours on foot to reach them," said Ms Power. Ms Power said the technology creates an emergency response network for pregnant women and babies, especially in remote and rural communities where ambulances are not available. She explained that the technology will enable women, and family members or healthcare workers to call a toll-free hotline number where a trained clinical dispatcher will determine what care they need and where precisely they can get service. The dispatcher will then connect them (pregnant women and family members) to a nearby driver who will transport them to the nearest hospital for care. Data of a pregnant woman is collected during Antenatal Clinic (ANC). So far, according to the official, most of M-Mama drivers are neither ambulance drivers nor official taxi drivers. "We know that taxi coverage is extremely limited in more rural and remote parts of this country (Kenya). Many of the drivers who sign on with the initiative are simply private car owners who want to help, having gone through the same experience of losing their wives," she said. Similarly, the USAID official noted that in the first region where the initiative was fully implemented, maternal deaths have fallen by 38 per cent, while newborn deaths have failed by 40 per cent. Speaking yesterday during the official launch of the technology, the Health CS Ms Susan Nakhumicah noted that the technology is timely because one of the major challenges facing pregnant women due to delivery is lack of timely referral and transport. "It is worrying that most pregnant women in need of delivery take long to arrive in hospitals, an issue which leads to premature deaths. Newborns also lack timely referrals and transport to reach facilities to provide them with quality services," said Nakhumicha. Ms Nakhumicha said the technology is a relief to women in remote areas across the country who are faced with poor roads network. "The technology will ensure safe pregnancy, delivery and Post delivery period is key to our attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) which is a Key agenda for our Government," said the CS. She added that the technology is in line with the Kenya Kwanza manifesto which envisions the attainment of UHC through among other interventions strengthening primary health care (preventive care) among communities and reduction of out of Pocket expenditure on health through affordable and flexible premium financing schemes including NHIF reforms to Social Health insurance. Further, the CS said M-mama is aligned with Kenya's Development and Health agenda and will provide an opportunity to strengthen primary health care and digitisation in the use of digital platforms. "M-Mama will certainly catalyse health sector collaborations and partnerships for safe motherhood, thereby accelerating the achievement of many of maternal and perinatal targets," she added. The chair of the Council of Governors Anne Waiguru M-mama initiative will augment the efforts by County Governments in strengthening the referral mechanism. Waiguru added that the number of adolescent and teenage pregnancies remains relatively high in the country. "Emergency referral of mothers remains a big challenge due to poor road infrastructure coupled with insecurity, especially for mothers who deliver at night as well as high cost of transport," said the CoG chair. She added, "We are all aware that for many maternal and newborn complications, there is a very short time window of emergency response before death. This is why the M-mama initiative is very critical," Also present during the launch of the initiative, US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman said the initiative will not only help save the lives of women and newborns but also "demonstrates administrators, philosophy of progress beyond programmes by confronting key developments challenge for maternal and newborn mortality rates." On his part, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said the service which will be easily accessible through a toll-free number will see drivers reimbursed instantly using M-Pesa. Safaricom through M-Pesa Foundation has invested just under Sh150 million to fund the one-time set-up costs. "With M-mama we can quickly reduce maternal and newborn deaths by 30 to 40 percent. We can save more lives now by working together like we are doing today," said Ndengwa.

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