M-mama is an initiative that offers affordable emergency transport services to connect mothers and newborns to vital life-saving healthcare facilities.
It is fully functional in Tanzania and Lesotho and was recently launched in Kenya on June 21, 2023.
M-Mama uses mobile technology to link emergency referral systems and transport expectant mothers facing complications to appropriate health facilities.
M-mama provides a free charge number, a 24/7 dispatch centre and an app.
Once a call is made to the line, a call handler assesses the patient’s condition using the m-mama app, designed for use on and off-line in rural areas.
If healthcare is required, the nearest volunteer emergency driver is identified on the m-mama app and receives a request to take the woman to an identified health facility for stabilisation or treatment.
The dispatcher calls ahead to ensure that the facility is able to treat the woman and can divert her to a preordained alternative if needed.
Where ambulances are rarely available, the m-mama system creates a network of local taxi drivers to act as ‘taxi ambulances’.
With detailed referral plans for every clinic and village, the system provides critical management of emergency transport.
On safe arrival at the final treatment facility, the driver is paid instantly for the journey via M-Pesa or other approved mechanism.
Vodafone foundation has designed m-mama to be affordable within local health budgets, which together with its life saving impact, has prompted governments to roll out m-mama at a national level.
According to USAID, m-mama has been shown to contribute to a 38 per cent decrease in the number of maternal deaths in the pilot countries in Africa.
“Since it was created by in 2013, m-mama has transported over 28,000 women and newborns and is conservatively estimated to have saved 900 lives,” a statement from USAID said.
Speaking during the launch where the Ministry of Health in partnership with USAID, Vodafone Foundation, Safaricom and M-PESA Foundation rolled out the initiative, CS Susan Nakhumicha spoke on the benefits of the initiative.
She said that connecting pregnant women to care when they need it the most will reduce maternal deaths and complications and foster health sector partnerships.
“M-mama will certainly catalyse health sector collaborations and partnerships for safe motherhood thereby accelerating achievement of many of maternal and perinatal targets,” the CS said.
“It is estimated that 6,000 women and 35,000 newborns in Kenya die annually from various complications.”
The US government has acknowledged that despite Kenya making progress in improving maternal and child health, efforts need to be accelerated to reach the Sustainable Development Goal target of 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.
Currently, more than 90 per cent of women are estimated to be delivering in healthcare facilities.
The deaths during births have been attributed to lack of timely referrals and transport for pregnant women and their newborns thus resulting in delays reaching healthcare facilities.
