Developing a mobile service for maternal healthcare

Client / Company: A Maternal Health Foundation
Industry: Healthcare
Research Method: Ethnographic Research

Objectives and Methodology

A Maternal Health Foundation saw an opportunity to provide a new service for low-income pregnant women and mothers through an SMS-based maternal health service. Curiosity was brought in to conduct exploratory research in order to provide a clearer understanding of the local context, challenges, and practices of the target users in relation to maternal health care.

 Key informant interviews provided a macro perspective of the maternal health care situation in the country.  Eight (8) pregnant women and new mothers were then interviewed to provide more detailed and grounded perspective of the everyday challenges related to maternal health faced by the users, and their strategies and support systems to overcome them. These were augmented by home visits to get a full context of the user’s environment. Curiosity then mapped out the journey these women go through – from awareness of the pregnancy until childcare – and identified inherent actions, feelings, thoughts, pain points, and the consequent opportunities for an SMS service at each stage.

 

Implementation of research results and recommendations is ongoing.