Safe delivery smartphone app now introduced in Tanzania

A new smartphone application, Safe Delivery App (SDA), used by birth attendants to provide safe delivery care for mothers and newborns in the country. PHOTO | AGENCY

What you need to know:

With this technology birth attendants will be able to get all life-saving skills to rescue women during childbirth in Tanzania

Dar es Salaam. A brand new smartphone application, dubbed the “Safe Delivery App (SDA), has now come to Tanzania and will be used by birth attendants to provide safe delivery care for mothers and newborns.

Scientists say the unveiling of the new technology means that birth attendants will be able to download the App from Google Play or at App Store and get all life-saving skills they need to rescue lives of women during childbirth regardless, where they are located in Tanzania.

The App was successfully tested in Ethiopia. In Tanzania, according to Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) scientists, it was launched for pilot in Mpwapwa District, Dodoma Region, on Thursday. An IHI researcher, who is also head of the SDA project, Dr Donat Shamba, said the technology was being tested by health scientists to save more lives. “It provides skilled birth attendants direct and instant access to evidence-based and up-to-date clinical guidelines on basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care,’’ said Dr Shamba.

Introducing the smartphone app he said it was part of IHI concerted effort to save thousands of women from deaths during childbirth.

Each day, about 550 women die in sub-Saharan Africa due to childbirth complications, data from World Health Organisation (WHO) shows. According to Tanzania’s Demographic and Health Survey (2010), only 51 per cent of deliveries are assisted by a trained professional and four midwives are available for 10,000 patients countrywide.

Chief nursing officer for Mpwapwa District Rhobi Kenyunko said such an app would help bridge the knowledge gap by imparting giving childbirth skills to health workers, who in normal circumstances, assist skilled birth attendants during childbirth.

 “Our district is short of skilled birth attendants. I hope that knowledge available in the app will help create a pool of medical staff knowledgeable about the basics of attending to mothers and newborns during childbirth,” she said.

To ensure improved skills, IHI has provided birth attendants at Mpwapwa health centres in Dodoma with new smartphones installed with the app, says an IHI statement availed to The Citizen.