In Uganda, 7,000 women and 45,000 newborns die annually due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth. 90% of these deaths are due to 3 delays:
- Delay in decision to seek care
- Delay in reaching care due
- Delay in receiving adequate health care
In certain communities, women often travel long distances to reach a health center. They are forced to deliver in villages without a skilled attendant due to lack of funds for transport or the poor quality of the roads. Therefore, Mama Rescue has intented to address the second delay, reducing the time to access quality care.
The Mama Rescue Project is a simple automated mobile-phone platform that provides vouchers enabling women to be transported by local motorcycle and taxi drivers to deliver in health centers.
They partner with local drivers who live close by our laboring mothers, creating a rapid response system between village and health centers, as well as between the health center and referral hospital when needed. The system relies on easy to use mobile phone technology that improves communication between drivers, midwives and doctors.
- 23,959 women in labor have been transported from their homes to health facilities in the Kyotera and Rakai Districts
- Percentage of facility deliveries (skilled attendance at birth) has increased from 75% (12,675/16,852) in 2020 to 94.4% (19,305/20,448) in 2022
- The time from arrival at a higherlevel healthcare facility to effective intervention dropped from three hours observed at baseline to 45 minutes
