Giving Compass' Take:

• Lerato Mogoatlhe demonstrates how one activist uses technology to educate mothers and improve maternal health in Cameroon.

• How can we support other efforts to solve preventable deaths for mothers and infants around the world? Why is technology an effective tool for providing mothers with the knowledge they need to preserve maternal health in Cameroon?

• Read about four other methods for improving maternal health in developing nations.

Alain Nteff from Cameroon is on a mission to create a world free from maternal and infant deaths, by using mobile technology to reach pregnant women and mothers who don’t have easy access to quality health care services.

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, maternal mortality is one of the biggest health challenges in Cameroon. It ranks 18th among the countries with the highest maternal mortality rates in the world; and in 2015, there were 600 deaths per 100,000 live births.

It’s a statistic that has improved over time, but it nevertheless remains very high. That’s why Nteff’s company, GiftedMom, is helping tackling this problem.

“My commitment to ending extreme poverty is really focused around health care,” Nteff tells Global Citizen. “Making sure that health is accessible to people who need it most.”

“At GiftedMom, our mission is to provide instant access to every expectant mom during pregnancy and after birth,” he continues.

The company communicates with moms and expectant moms in two key ways: through an SMS service that helps mothers with appointment reminders; and an app that has visual educational content to help mothers understand the health care they need to have a safe pregnancy and delivery.

As Nteff and the WHO highlight, most maternal deaths are preventable — and the health care solutions needed to save their lives and the lives of their babies are well known.

All women need access to high quality care in pregnancy, and during and after child birth.

“So we decided to build a solution to educate moms,” says Nteff. “We didn’t see why with so much technology in the world, we should still have moms, and people in general, dying from preventable causes.”

Read the full article about improving maternal health in Cameroon by Lerato Mogoatlhe at Global Citizen.