Project
Every day, about 800 women around the world die during their pregnancy or after giving birth, often due to inadequate health care. Dr. Igna Bonfrer (global health economist and director of the Rotterdam Global Health Initiative) and her team, working with local partner together for her, successfully introduced an inventive app for pregnant women. App users receive information on their phones on how to best manage their pregnancy.
“Global wealth inequality also has its effects on health care”, says Igna Bonfrer. “Many people in less wealthy countries lack access to the healthcare they need. That is why the Rotterdam Global Health Initiative (RGHI) is working together with local institutions to develop interventions, improving health care accessibility. We underwrite the United Nations’ ambition to provide everybody with good and affordable healthcare by 2030.” To realize these ambitions, the RGHI started Happy Moms and Babies.
This project now reaches around 600.000 women in India. “With good information, we can reduce mortality among mothers. We try to provide tailor-made advice on, for example, hygiene and nutrition. We’re also encouraging mothers to give feedback to healthcare practitioners. If this app produces demonstrable knowledge and health improvements, we can expand to cover the first few years of infancy, as well as other countries.”
