Mobile aid for mothers

 By ELIZABETH MIAE

THE use of mobile phones to assist in emergency childbirth cases has been tried out in Milne Bay.

The project is to see whether voice calls are effective in the delivery of that essential health service.

The childbirth emergency phone project is the first in the country and was funded by AusAID through the economic and public sector programme managed by Coffee International Development in partnership with the health department, Digicel (PNG) and the Milne Bay provincial health authority.

It was first tried out in the Alotau and Kiriwina districts last November where health workers were advised to call a toll free number at the Alotau hospital to seek advice and assist in managing childbirth complications.  

The project came about as a result of a consultative forum for the health sector in Port Moresby last November. Various ideas of health projects involving mobile phones were raised and discussed. 

Prof Glen Mola from the University of Papua New Guinea School of Medicine and Health Sciences suggested a system for emergency phones connecting remote areas to labour wards in the main hospitals. 

Following Mola’s proposal, research consultant Dr Amanda Watson and assistant Gaius Sabumei were contracted to conduct a research into the project.

They presented a report on the results of phase one of the project at the Lamana Hotel in Port 

Moresby.

Sabumei said Milne Bay was chosen because of its high maternal deaths and the difficulties people faced in travelling from one island to another or to the mainland to access health services. 

At the start of the project, Sabumei travelled to rural health facilities distributing solar mobile phone chargers, standard manuals and books and stickers and carried out awareness on the project. 

He said the emergency phone was located in the labour ward and was fully charged. Clinic notes sheets are completed by labour ward staff and the computer records all the calls received.

“In November 2012 the logbook recorded 19 new cases: 17 were maternal cases, while two were non-maternal,” Watson said.

“In the month of December, 2012 there were calls recorded in the logbook regarding 25 new cases: 19 calls for new obstetric cases and six non-obstetric cases.”

Watson and Sabumei recommended that the project be extended to two other districts in the province as well as the country depending on its success.