Abstract

In the effort to reduce maternal mortality rate, Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 was declared globally. Tanzania has no exception on this. Maternal mortality and morbidity is still an enduring challenge in Tanzania. In 2010 the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) was recorded at 454/100,000 live births. Despite of the devoted efforts and significant progress that Tanzania has made in reducing MMR, still the situation demands for more improved intervention. One among the contributors of maternal mortality is lack of education to expectant mothers. In this paper, a model with a pivotal role to extend health information accessibility to expectant mothers is proposed. A proposed model is exploiting the potential and power of mobile phones to deliver its services. Existing extended network coverage and expansion of mobile phone usage are the unprecedented advantages that would also be exploited.

References

• A. Blank, H. Prytherch, J. Kaltschmidt, A. Krings, F. Sukums, N. Mensah, A. Zakane, S. Loukanova, L. L. Gustafsson, R. Sauerborn, and W. E. Haefeli, "'Quality of prenatal and maternal care?: bridging the know-do gap ' ( QUALMAT study ): an electronic clinical decision support system for rural Sub-Saharan Africa," BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak. , 2013.
• WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, and WORLD BANK, "Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990- 2010," 2012.
• Africa progress panel policy, "Maternal Health?:Investing in the Lifeline of Healthy Societies and Economies," 2010.
• H. Paul and B. Judith, "Reducing Maternal Mortality. The contribution of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. "
• A. K. Hassan and D. Semkwiji, "The Role of Mobile Phones on Sustainable Livelihood," 2011.
• C. Z. Qiang, M. Yamamichi, V. Hausman, and D. Altman, "Mobile Applications for the Health Sector," , December, 2011.
• P. Tiwari, "Providing healthcare services in rural India?: Innovative application of mobile technology," Heal. Care Informatics Rev. Online, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 3–9, 2010.
• PWC, "Emerging mHealth: Paths for growth," 2012.
• MOH, "e Health in Tanzania National Strategic Plan Final Draft," 2010.
• Gramen Foundation, "Mobile technology for community health in Ghana," 2011.
• J. Lemaire, "Scaling up mobile health elements necessary for the mhealth in developing countries," 2011.
• MAMA (Mobile alliance for maternal action), "healthy pregnancy , healthy baby text messaging service tanzania," 2013.
• CDC Foundation, "mHealth Text Messaging Campaign in Tanzania. " .
• F. Ngabo, J. Nguimfack, F. Nwaigwe, C. Mugeni, D. Muhoza, D. R. Wilson, J. Kalach, R. Gakuba, C. Karema, and A. Binagwaho, "Designing and Implementing an Innovative SMS-based alert system (RapidSMS-MCH) to monitor pregnancy and reduce maternal and child deaths in Rwanda," Pan Afr. Med. J. , 2012.