Experiencing pregnancy and childbirth during the lockdown has been harrowing for several women in India. Take the case of three such women living in the slums of the M-East ward in Mumbai, a city with a vast network of public and private health facilities. After failing to arrange transport to the hospital, Anila and Varsha delivered their babies at home with untrained birth attendants. Anila went into labor unexpectedly, and although it was live birth, the baby survived for only a few hours. Varsha had complications that required an early delivery. When she arrived at the municipal hospital with her newborn in arms for a check-up, she decided to return seeing the large number of COVID patients being treated there. Pramila, on the other hand, admitted herself for an emergency cesarean delivery at a large municipal hospital but ended up being COVID-positive resulting in an extended hospital stay for herself and her baby.
All these cases point to late-stage complications, which could have been avoided by continuous monitoring throughout pregnancy, which these women did not receive. This corroborates the research findings that interruptions in routine services, due to priority for COVID-19 cases, have a devastating impact on maternal and child health. With government frontline workers either ill due to COVID-19, quarantined, or redirected to COVID-19 treatment, families are forced to consider the more expensive private care. Interactions with 1000+ families of pregnant women indicate that loss of wages has increased the financial burden for maternal and child healthcare, which has led families to skip routine prenatal and postnatal care, and even opt for home delivery. What they don’t realize is that the resulting complications of these practices often lead to catastrophic healthcare expenditure, pushing the family below the poverty line.
CareMother, a digital pregnancy care solution, offers a simple yet effective intervention to this critical issue. An AI-enabled innovation for early identification and management of high-risk pregnancies, the CareMother app allows health providers and mothers to track pregnancy symptoms and warning signs, and know when to seek institutional care. The pandemic urged us to think of newer ways to support mothers like Anila, Varsha and Pramila in their pregnancy journeys, while urging more women to get online. We are now adding digital tools such as:
A) ‘What not to miss’ for customized guidance on prenatal tests and immunizations at critical pregnancy milestones available through our app;
B) Gynecologist led guidance on pregnancy care during the pandemic;
C) Home care kit for mothers; and
D) Location specific listing of hospitals/clinics for pregnancy and delivery services, with a certification on their safety.
We are already leveraging platforms such as WhatsApp to reach out to a large number of pregnant women, to support them with information and advice. In the process, we hope to encourage more women to go digital, and take charge of their own health and well-being.
