One of the largest problems facing the developing world is the lack of access to medical care. This poses a very large issue for women in developing countries when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth. In the developed world where there is easier access to healthcare and health knowledge, women go through the process with much greater ease. Women in the developing world do not have nearly the same access to books, internet, or regular visits with healthcare professionals. Thus, they do not have the same access to health knowledge which is very important while going through a pregnancy.
Although these women in developing countries have very limited access to medical care, a very high portion of them have mobile phones. This can open up a whole new world for them when it comes to increases in ICTs in the health sector. Through a mobile phone, there are many ways women can seek the particular healthcare they might not otherwise have access to. If they have access to smart-phones, which is a growing trend in the developing world, their access to this mobile healthcare can increase even more through mobile apps.
Through collaboration with the Grameen Foundation, BabyCenter, Columbia University, and the Ghana Health Service, a new mobile app called the “Mobile Midwife” has been created to help women in developing countries go through pregnancy with much more knowledge and ease. This initiative has the objective “to promote healthy pregnancies by encouraging women to seek prenatal care, debunking myths about pregnancy and childbirth, and offering advice on topics such as delivery, breastfeeding, immunization and good nutrition.” This app has the ability to do great things and help women throughout all stages of pregnancy and even afterwards. Once more people in the developing world gain access to smart-phones, this app can do a lot more for an even greater number of people.
Source: Mobile Midwive
ICT4D @ Tulane 
March 22nd, 2012 at 8:55 pm
That’s a pretty cool app. Initiatives like these can also be beneficial or used very widely even in the US and Europe. I found information about other mobile apps similar to this one where it was sms-based so of course a larger audience could have access to the information. I think Mobile Midwife and other similar apps can also be a way to cause some in the developing world to be more open to the possibility of using of traditional medical professionals instead of only relying on what we would consider to be “alternative health practices.”
March 22nd, 2012 at 11:44 pm
I agree, this does sound like a really cool app! Of course there will be the usual issues including access to cell phones, language barriers, etc. But this app has amazing potential to be incredibly useful in both the developing and developed worlds. In fact, at this point in time it seems that it would be most useful in the developed world. As we discussed in class, the developed world has the best capacity to support smartphone applications, however as technology develops in other countries, this app is sure to be an amazing help.