Have you ever heard about the Safe Delivery App? It is a professional job aid and a digital training and learning tool for midwives and other healthcare workers, covering the most common pregnancy and childbirth related complications. Features in the app include simple animated instruction-videos, quizzes, descriptions of practical procedures, and drug lists. Healthcare workers can always refer to these – either on the job, in their spare time or as part of their training.
The app targets midwives and other healthcare workers in low-resource settings where most of all maternal deaths happen and where many midwives and other healthcare workers lack the sufficient skills and knowledge.
Looking at the stats, we know that almost 800 women die in pregnancy or childbirth everyday, and we know that that the majority of them could be prevented if women received quality care from a skilled healthcare worker. To date, only 20% of the Sub-Saharan healthcare workers giving maternity care are fully trained. In addition, the world currently needs an extra one million more midwives to ensure quality care for women and newborns.
There is a huge need to better educate more midwives and other healthcare workers. Through the app, it is possible to reach even the most remote ones with updated clinical guidelines. The app is free, and once downloaded, it can also be used offline.
In addition, the App provides continued learning opportunities. Through its My Learning platform, it allows users to practice and test their knowledge interactively and at their own time and pace. The user can also achieve a formal certification and become Safe Delivery Champion through the App.
Behind the app is Maternity Foundation, an organization that works to ensure safer births for women and their newborns in low-resource settings. The app was developed in collaboration with Copenhagen University, University of Southern Denmark and healthcare workers.
Since the launch in 2015, the app has been downloaded more than 270,000 times and is now used in more than 40 countries in different languages.
Maternity Foundation aims to help close the huge gap in midwifery services and works with partners to integrate the app and its other services into project-specific and national education and training programmes, pre-service curricula, and with other digital solutions. For instance, the Safe Delivery App is an integrated part of Ethiopia’s midwifery education, and in India our online courses are part of the official accreditation programme for nurses and midwives.
Want to know more? Go to maternity.dk