Airtel unveils Mobile Midwife, Dial-a-Doctor services

Emeka Ibemere

Are you an expectant mother or are you in a ‘State’.  Do you lack information on how best to go about your new born baby? Then connect yourself with Airtel Nigeria and enjoy the first hand information on nutrition and healthcare knowledge. How.
The Nigerian leading telecommunications service provider, Airtel Nigeria, in conjunction with Grameen Foundation, VAS2nets have decided to launch Mobile Health Services, with the aim of reducing high mortality rate in Nigeria.
Recent report of the World Health Organization (WHO) says ‘Trends in maternal mortality: 1990-2013’ classified Nigeria as one of the 10 countries of the world that contribute about 60 per cent of the world’s maternal mortality trouble. The country currently has a maternal mortality ratio of 560 per 100,000 live births, the ratio improved slightly moving from 630 per 100,000 recorded in 2010.
Reports further said this high mortality rate in Nigeria falls short of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets for 2015. With 2015 four months away from experts are worried that the goal of eradicating maternal mortality or reducing the ugly trend drastically would be achieved.
Experts in health sector have also stated that 1 in 4 maternal deaths are caused by pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes, HIV, malaria, and obesity. These health conditions are usually aggravated by pregnancy. Other identified causes of maternal deaths include severe bleeding, pregnancy induced high blood pressure, infections, and abortion complications.
Health stakeholders claimed that the high maternal mortality in Nigeria could only be done effectively if mothers and new born have unhindered access to adequate health systems, skilful birth attendants, and low cost medical interventions, including information. Their arguments are that access to information could reduce new born death rates by 75 per cent.

Deaths related to giving birth among mothers and their new born babies are noticeable among the poor persons. And governments have not devoted enough towards making available basic health care systems to their citizens especially among the deprived in rural communities.
It’s because of the poor campaigns across the country that Airtel and her partners, Grameen Foundation and VAS2nets have developed services to mount campaigns aimed at educating all segments of the populace on the need for proper maternal care during pregnancy and on the health conditions that are inimical to mother and child health.
So in their effort to reduce infant and maternal mortality rate in Nigeria, the leading communications services provider, Airtel Nigeria, partnered with Grameen Foundation and VAS2nets Technologies Ltd; to unveil two innovative mobile health services dubbed: ‘Mobile Midwife and Dial-a-Doctor’. 
According to the organizations, ‘Mobile Midwife’ was designed mobile service meant to provide vital healthcare and nutrition information. And on the other hand, ‘The Dial-A-Doctor’ service provides real-time help to pregnant women, nursing mothers and mothers with children under five years of age. It was launched in Lagos, Nigeria on Thursday, September 25th, 2014
The Airtel ‘Mobile Midwife and Dial-A-Doctor’ services also offer unhindered access to adequate healthcare services and medical advisories to the target group.
The Mobile Midwife service comes in two variants - Pre-natal services and new born/mother services. Both services are aimed at improving antenatal seeking behaviour of pregnant women and access to validated health and nutrition information. On the other hand, the Dial-a-Doctor service offers subscribers first-hand opportunity to speak to a doctor by dialling 67777. Users are billed N30 per minute when connected to a doctor.

How do we get connected? Airtel says, to subscribe and register for the Mobile Midwife pre-natal services, customers are expected to dial 1561. Upon registration, subscribers receive calls from the service, once a week with information which is tailored to their stage of pregnancy. They can also call in and speak to experienced medical personnel at any time.
For new born/mother services, customers are required to dial 1561 to listen to the voice prompt and register for the service. Upon registration, subscribers will receive information, at frequent intervals, via IVR, throughout the first year of the child’s life.
The Mobile Midwife subscription service is billed at N30 per week. Subscribers are notified every day for the last two days before expiration of their subscription. Customers registered for the service can also dial 1561 to speak directly with a doctor at N50 per minute at any time and on any day of the week.
Commenting on the innovative proposition, the Chief Commercial Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Maurice Newa, said Airtel was intensely interested in the health and general wellbeing of pregnant women and infants as this is consistent with its corporate vision of becoming the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians.
According to him, Airtel was committed in its quest of touching lives and enriching Nigerians, noting that the company is deeply interested in reducing infant and maternal mortality across the country.
The Mobile Midwife service was made possible by a grant provided by the GSMA Connected Women Programme to Grameen Foundation with technical support provided by VAS2Nets Technologies Ltd. 
Claire Sibthorpe, Director of the GSMA Connected Women Programme, said: “The GSMA Connected Women Programme seeks to accelerate the growth of the female digital economy by working with partners to bring significant socio-economic benefits to women consumers and employees. One way this can be achieved is by delivering life-enhancing mobile services for women and the Mobile Midwife service is a great example of this.  It will create social impact by providing medically-proven, locally relevant health information to pregnant women and nursing mothers in Nigeria”, she stated.
The C.E.O. of VAS2Nets Technologies Ltd, Mr. Ayo Stuffman also emphasizes the need to prevent majority of death by the intelligence of mobile healthcare solutions through the recent incredible growth in technology trend. “Getting behavioural change information into the hands of vulnerable women and providing access to medical and emotional advice for men and women can help build the Nigeria we want.  Dial-A-Doctor and Mobile Midwife is timely and will help a great deal,” he said.
It was understood that the Mobile -Midwife was first developed in Ghana through collaboration between Grameen Foundation and the Ghana Health Service.
“Our experience has shown that providing information to pregnant women and mothers of infants that are tailored to their stage of pregnancy or the child’s development reduces birth complications and improves health outcomes for mother and child.  We are pleased to work with Airtel Nigeria and VAS2nets to launch this service in Nigeria,” said Hillary Miller-Wise, Grameen Foundation’s regional CEO for Africa.

But with the introduction of Airtel mobile health service which provides reliable and up-to-date information for the target group, the telco aims to support the government’s efforts in addressing birth complications, also reducing infant mortality and maternal mortality in Nigeria and perhaps reduces the countries position on the recent World Health Organization (WHO) report, that classified Nigeria as one of the 10 countries of the world that contribute about 60 per cent of the world’s maternal mortality burden.