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MomConnect - South Africa Maternal mHealth

South Africa, Southern Africa

MomConnect is South Africas flagship national mHealth program launched in 2014 by the National Department of Health. It provides free SMS or WhatsApp health messages to pregnant women and new mothers until their baby is 2 years old, plus a nurse-staffed helpdesk. Nearly 5 million mothers have registered across 95% of public health facilities. Studies show 96% of users attended 4+ antenatal visits (vs 76% national average), 89% completed 6-week vaccinations, 17% increase in breastfeeding among first-time mothers.

Behavior Goal

Increase antenatal care attendance, improve immunization coverage, promote exclusive breastfeeding, and increase family planning use through stage-based mobile messaging

Methods & Approaches

Service Delivery Integration

Implementers & Partners

  • South African National Department of Health
  • Praekelt.org
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • MAMA South Africa

Donors & Sponsors

  • South African Government
  • USAID
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • ELMA Foundation

Key Takeaways

  • 15 million mothers registered - demonstrating national scale feasibility
  • 2Stage-based messaging delivers relevant content throughout pregnancy and infancy
  • 3Helpdesk feedback mechanism enables service quality improvement
  • 4Designed for low-resource settings using SMS/USSD accessible on basic phones
  • 5Integration with health facility registration ensures accurate tracking

Sources

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