Help us save mothers and newborns from dying in childbirth

The Safe Delivery App is an innovative mobile health solution using animated instruction films to train and instruct birth attendants to improve their skills and performance. The app is developed by Maternity Foundation in collaboration with leading scientists from University of Copenhagen and University of Southern Denmark.  

As of today, The Safe Delivery App consists of three animated instruction films. In order to address all major life-threatening complications that can occur before, after and during birth, we want to develop an additional six films.

With your support we can develop a full Safe Delivery App by the beginning of 2015 to be used by health workers across sub-Saharan Africa.

The Safe Delivery App and Maternity Foundation in the news

Read Vogue Italy article.
Read NotImpossibleNow article. 
Read our Huffington Post blog post.
Read The World's Best News article.
Read Jyllands-Posten commentary (Danish only). 

Why the world needs The Safe Delivery App

Annually, more than 289,000 women and 3 million newborns die from birth- or pregnancy-related causes globally. This means that every second minute a women dies in pregnancy or childbirth and every 30 second a newborn baby dies due to delivery complications. 

However, there is good news: 90 percent of these deaths are preventable with the attention and care of a skilled birth attendant! The absolute key in fighting maternal mortality is training - and thus, empowerment - of birth attendants. 

But in Sub-Saharan Africa there is an acute lack of skilled attendance at birth – especially in remote areas. Often the health workers have low levels of formal training, and are deployed, often alone, at remote stations. Mobile health tools such as The Safe Delivery App can overcome these out-reach barriers. 

How The Safe Delivery App works

The Safe Delivery App gives the health worker access to skilled training everywhere at any time. 

It currently consists of three animated instruction films that are easy to understand and overcomes one of the major barriers of low literacy. The app can also be used as a reference tool during clinical work. For example, during the preparation before attending a birth, in a situation where a complication occurs, or for debriefing and self-evaluation after a complication.

The Safe Delivery App can be preinstalled on the phone and it is therefore not a requirement to have network connection or internet access with the phone.

When completed, we will make The Safe Delivery App available as a free open-source tool to be used in partnership with NGOs, governments and major organizations across sub-Saharan Africa. We have already made partnerships with Red Cross and Ethiopian Midwives Association about using the app in their maternal health programs.

Joining the mobile phone revolution

Today there are 600 million mobile users and within a few years, there will be more mobile subscribers than people in the world. Mobile health interventions are rapidly becoming an important tool with which to impact the health of Africans. The health workers are often working alone, with no one to contact if in doubt, with no water or electricity - but very often, they do have a mobile phone as the chart below shows.

So why not use the mobile phones to train and empower health workers?

The results so far

We are currently testing the effectiveness of the app in a research study in Ethiopia. The midterm results from the study show a remarkable increase in the skill level of the health workers and midwives, who have been working with the Safe Delivery App for a six-month period. 

Many of the health care workers using the app have become more confident about handling complicated childbirths. They are pleased with the graphic, explanatory nature of the videos, which are useful despite language barriers and reading difficulties.

YOU can help us save a mother's life

We need your help to finish the Safe Delivery App.

The app currently contains three animated instruction videos, but in order for it to address all the life threatening complications that can occur before, during and after birth we intent to develop an additional six films. Among the topics covered in the new films are Pregnancy Induced Hypertension/PreEclampsia, Prolonged Labor, Early Neonatal Management and Infection Prevention and Control. 

Our team of doctors and experts within obstetrics and mHealth will develop the films in close collaboration with our group of international experts (from AMDD, ALSO, American College of Midwifes, African Union, Ministry of Health Zanzibar, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) who will be validating the films before we implement them in the app.

The 100.000 dollars will enable us to go through the following steps and have a full app in the beginning of 2015. 

Any support from you will make a big difference for us! To show our gratitude, we will:

• Thank you on our Facebook page (10 dollar perk) or make you a personal certificate on your donation (20 dollar perk). 
• Send you a personal thank you from the Maternity team (100 dollar perk). 
• Send you samples of our beautiful Mother's Day cards by renowned Danish artists Anika Lori and Tal R (50, 100, 200 and 500 dollar perk).                                          

The people behind The Safe Delivery App 

        The app is developed by:                            First part of the app funded by:
                                      

Maternity Foundation is a Danish development organization that aims to reduce maternal and child mortality in developing countries. We work to capacity build health facilities so that health workers have the right skills to handle critical complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Maternity Foundation is deeply rooted in medical clinical expertise in obstetrics, gynecology and neonatology and works evidence-based in close collaboration with leading researchers and academics. Since 2010, Maternity Foundation has had H.R.H. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark as patron. 

Maternity Foundation’s strategy for the coming years is to become a leading innovator and catalyst for building maternal and newborn health in developing countries. We will do this by offering our expert services within training of health workers and our mobile health tools to international NGOs and the public health sector in developing countries - such as through our already established partnerships with Red Cross, SOS Children's Villages and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. 

The Safe Delivery App plays a crucial role in enabling us to reach out to more health workers in several countries - and it is the central component of our strategy to scale up through partnerships.

Read more about our organization here: www.maternity.dk

University of Copenhagen and University of Southern Denmark
The development and testing of the Safe Delivery App is carried out in collaboration with doctors and scientists from two of the leading academic institutions in the field of mHealth (mobile health): Copenhagen University’s School of Global Health and University of Southern Denmark.

The co-operation includes Dr. Stine Lund and Dr. Bjarke Lund Sorensen, from respectively University of Copenhagen and University of Southern Denmark.

Stine Lund is a lecturer at University of Copenhagen and an active member of the ENRECA health research network. She is one of the leading experts in the development of mHealth tools and applications for developing countries. She is the founder of Wired Mothers in Tanzania, an mHealth tool connecting pregnant women to the health system through SMS services. The Wired Mothers system is also being tested in Maternity Foundation's program in Ethiopia.

Dr. Bjarke Lund Sorensen is a doctor and PhD and has specialized in quality assurance of emergency obstetric and neonatal care in low- and middle income countries among other things teaching and adjusting the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO ®) in Sub-saharan Africa and with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and by developing criterion based audit.

Bjarke Lund Sorensen holds a position as consultant in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Odense University Hospital as well as a half time academic position as Associate Professor at University of Southern Denmark. University of Southern Denmark has given high priority to researching reproductive health in low- and middle income countries, and also hosts the Centre for Innovative Medical Technology that is a leading institution for the development of mHealth strategies.

Supporters 

Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary 

In 2010, HRH Crown Princess Mary became patron for Maternity Foundation. The Crown Princess is an active advocate for women's rights and health, and is a member of the international high-level panel of ICPD and patron for the UN Population Fund.

Ellen Hillingsø, Actress and Maternity Foundation Ambassador
Beate Bille, Actress and Maternity Foundation Ambassador

Maternity Friends

For our Mother's Day 2014 campaign, a large number of leading Danish artists, politicians, media personalities and business leaders supported our work to save women in childbirth. All of them did a "helpie" to promote the sale of our 2014 Mother's Day card. And by the way ... the pretty card is one of our perks! 

Among them are EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation Mogens Jensen, artist Olafur Eliasson, tv host Christiane Schaumburg-Müller, actor Pilou Asbæk, children's author and tv host Shane Brox, prorector at University of Copenhagen Lykke Friis. 

• Morten Hedegaard, PhD, Head of Department, Department of Obstetrics at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital.
  
• Anette Tønnes Pedersen, Ph.D., Ass. Professor, Dept. of Gynaecology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital.
• Anne Barfoed, clinical developer and midwife at Gentofte Hospital.
  
• Lena Carlsson, midwife, Helsingborg.
• Marie Tolstrup, midwife at Thisted Hospital.
• Monica Rosén, midwife.
• Lisbeth Munk Jacobsen, midwife.
• Christina Marie Braüner, midwife. PhD Scholar, Master of Public Health.
• Dr Maryam Hemed, OBGYN, African Union, Addis Ababa.
• Susanne Houd, midwife, Greenland.
  
• Dr Tadesse Urgie, OBGYN, St. Paul's Hospital, Addis Ababa.