An Innovative Midwifery Programme Provides Safer Births in Remote, Fragile Areas
Video
Learn how Maternity Foundation works with partners in Afar, Ethiopia to strengthen quality of care provided to mothers and newborns.
Overview
Maternity Foundation has Danish roots and is today a global organization, offering digital solutions and learning and training programmes within the fields of maternal and newborn health. It works in both humanitarian and development settings and other low-resource settings. As it has been expanding the scope of its work in recent years to also include preventive services, including maternal mental health and modern contraception, it is increasingly taking a broader position within the sexual and reproductive health and rights and justice agenda.
In 2005, it started out as a smaller Danish NGO working in western Ethiopia. Today, it has offices in Ethiopia, India, and Denmark and engagements in multiple countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia. In 2023 it started to expand its work into Latin America and the Caribbean.
Operating and Business Model
Maternity Foundation works closely with partners, including national governments and local and international associations, as well as with UN agencies and international NGOs. Together, partners integrate evidence-based services into project-specific and national education and training programs, pre-service curricula, in-service training, and with other digital solutions. This ensures sustainability and further enhances the scalability of its digital solutions and programs.
The Foundation monitors, evaluates, and adjusts projects and programs each step of the way, using data from its digital solutions. This allows to tailor-make each interventions and ensure a larger impact. To further advance the health of mothers and their newborns, Maternity Foundation participates in relevant global networks, events, and campaigns. Here, the Foundation advocates for prioritizing maternal and newborn health globally and calls for new cross-sectorial partnerships, new business models and smart and ethical use of technology. To ensure financial sustainability, it has built a freemium business model: a model where the core solution is free, but add-on services can be purchased at a premium. In Maternity Foundation's case, the app has been made free and requires in- country partners (e.g., NGOs and agencies) to co-finance premium services such as national app adaptation, trainings and implementation support. The freemium model can also create ownership by the partners investing in the app— another vital component in strengthening the sustainability of a digital solution.
Safe Delivery+ Programme
The Safe Delivery+ Programme is a comprehensive universe aimed at addressing healthcare challenges in resource-constrained areas. Its primary objective is to enhance the quality of care provided around childbirth, with a focus on providing instant access to evidence-based clinical guidelines, descriptions of practices for routine and emergency care as well as to competency-based learning and training for healthcare professionals everywhere. Learn more here.
435,000+ reached
The map shows countries where we have in-country partnerships or a substantial number of users. The boundaries and names shown on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of Maternity Foundation concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area.
Safe Delivery App
Central to the Safe Delivery+ Programme is the Safe Delivery App; an evidence-based job aid, learning and training tool designed to support midwives, nurses, and healthcare professionals in assisting births and managing the most common complications. Among other features, it contains simple, animated instruction videos, descriptions of practical procedures, and 3 action cards in addition to having a MyLearning platform that allows for competency-based learning and training. At the same time, the user can achieve a formal certification and become Safe Delivery Champion through the App.
It is free and once downloaded, it also works offline, making it possible to be used in even the most remote areas. Through the Safe Delivery+ Programme, we can reach even the most remote healthcare professionals and continuously enhance their knowledge and skills and ultimately the quality of care that they provide for the communities they serve.
The Safe Delivery App is an evidence-based professional job-aid, teaching and learning tool. It provides guidance on how to assist birth and manage the most common complications related to pregnancy or birth.
- Free and works offline on smartphones and tablets, once downloaded.
- Comes in 5 global versions based on WHO guidelines (English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese) and almost 40 language versions, adapted to national contexts and needs.
- As of November 2023, the Safe Delivery App and the accompanying programme have reached 400,000+ healthcare professionals across 70+ countries worldwide.
- Contains simple, animated instruction videos, action cards, descriptions of practical procedures, and drug lists that healthcare professionals can refer to – either on the job, in their spare time or as part of their training.
- Includes a MyLearning platform allowing users to practice and test their knowledge interactively and at their own time and pace. Users can achieve a formal certification and become a Safe Delivery App Champion when passing all modules at ‘Expert Level’.
Impact
To date, the Safe Delivery App, together with the accompanying Safe Delivery+ programme, has reached more than 435,000 healthcare professionals across more than 70 countries. When the app was first developed, it was tested in a randomized controlled trial in Ethiopia to assess the impact on healthcare professionals’ life-saving skills and knowledge. Key results revealed a significant increase in the skills and knowledge level of the health workers using the App. For example, at 12 months health workers' ability to handle post-partum bleeding and to resuscitate a newborn more than doubled1Subsequent RCTs have supported these findings.2Additionally, project monitoring and evaluation results from 16 countries show an average improvement in knowledge of 24%, in confidence of 22% and in skills of 65%.
Maternity Foundation makes a difference for midwives around the world. One of them is Fareeda Yelgie, a midwife from rural Ghana, who attended to a birthing woman in the middle of the night. The baby started to get sick immediately after delivery due to low glucose levels.
"I opened the Safe Delivery App and I was able to manage the complication. Finally, I got the baby to breastfeed, the temperature came down to normal, and both mother and baby were happy. Thanks to Safe Delivery App, I was the hero of the night."hero of that night, “ recalls Fareeda.
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1 ” Association between the Safe Delivery App and quality of care and perinatal survival in Ethiopia”, Lund et al. Jama Pediatrics,
2016. ↩ - mLearning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: A Mixed-Methods Feasibility and Pilot Cluster Randomized Trial Using the Safe Delivery App Nancy E. Bolan, Larry Sthreshley, Bernard Ngoy, Faustin Ledy, Mano Ntayingi, Davis Makasy, Marie-Claude Mbuyi, Gisele Lowa, Lynne Nemeth, Susan Newman Global Health: Science and Practice Dec 2018, 6 (4) 693-710; DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-18-00275 ↩