CradleCount App-An innovative Health App Set to Reduce Infant, Maternal Mortality

It's no longer news that Africa is faced with great challenges, what is interesting is that many young Africans with technology and innovation, are beginning to provide the needed solution to the problems of the continent.

The health sector in Africa, for example, is such that needs a lot of innovative ideas to reduce poor health related deaths like Maternal and Infant Mortality.

Every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds and 145 women of childbearing age. This makes the country the second largest contributor to the under–five and maternal mortality rate in the world.(UNICEF).

Several research and Statistics from organizations like WHO,UNICEF, National Demographic and Health Survey(NDHS) have shown that everyday about 90 women in Nigeria die of pregnancy related conditions .

A woman's chance of dying from pregnancy and childbirth in Nigeria is 1 in every 13.Nigeria has the 10th highest maternal mortality in the world.

Although many of these deaths are preventable, the coverage and quality of health care services in Nigeria continue to fail women and children.

Presently, less than 20 per cent of health facilities offer emergency obstetric care and only 35 per cent of deliveries are attended by skilled birth attendants. The reasons are hinged substantially on the fact that skilled birth assistants are not usually present during delivery.

Even when they eventually are present, it happens late due to delays at home or in the community. About 6 out of 10 women have their babies at home where the delivery is not supervised by a skilled birth attendant.

And errors in estimating the expected date of delivery could lead to the baby being delivered supposedly unexpected.

This is the problem faced by pregnant women in Nigeria and Africa, If this is not addressed there will be increased pregnancy related complications resulting in more maternal and infant mortality. This is where technology and innovation come in.

Seeing these shocking statistics and challenges faced by pregnant women, a Young Nigerian Kesandu Nwokolo and her team ,has developed a mobile phone application to help reduce the incident of infant and maternal mortality in Africa. The app is called CradleCount.

CradleCount helps pregnant women and also health practitioners:
-Calculate accurately the expected date of delivery using the last menstrual period.
-It also informs the pregnant women how many days to the delivery of the baby
-The app has alerts that remind pregnant mothers to register and follow up with their antenatal care.
-It also sends regular pregnancy and health tips to expectant mothers.
-CradleCount app can also work without an internet connection.
-It is well designed with good aesthetic values and background colours that mothers can change the background of the app depending on the sex of the baby they are expecting.
-Cradle app is Free to download and easy to use.
-If you are a pregnant woman or health practitioner for pregnant women,
download the CradleCount App here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nwokolo.kesandunwokolo.baby&hl=en
-Join the conversation with other pregnant women who use CradleCount App
on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/CradleCount-1662766140667602/
-Send questions and inquiries to:[email protected]
-Follow the CradleCount team on Twitter: @CradleCount