The Safe Delivery App is launched in India

The Indian version of the Safe Delivery App is now available to skilled birth attendants in India to help make childbirth safer for women across the country! The Indian Safe Delivery App was launched Monday, December 11, 2017 in New Delhi on Universal Health Coverage Day by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Shri S.P. Shukla, MoS (Finance).

Together with collaborative partners from Jhpiego India, Maternity Foundation’s Senior Partnership Manager Chris Lukolyo presented the Indian Safe Delivery App to both ministers who received it with approval and great interest. The event was well attended by representatives from the Indian government, WHO, nonprofits, and other key MNCH stakeholders.

The Indian Safe Delivery App is the result of a collaborative effort between the MoHFW GoI, Jhpiego India, and Maternity Foundation. The development of the Hindi version was funded by MSD for Mothers. The implementation and scale up of the Safe Delivery App is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Safe Delivery App was translated into Hindi, the animations were adjusted to the Indian context, and the guidelines around basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care were adapted to the Government of India (GoI) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) Guidelines. An English version of this Indian-adapted App is also available.

In the Indian context there is a strong need for tools and technologies that can help health workers translate evidence based guidelines and related skills into action. The Indian government has developed strong guidelines focusing on quality of perinatal care (which have been included on the Indian Safe Delivery App) and has invested resources on training health workers through skill building programs for childbirth related care. However, the ability, accountability and motivation of health workers to translate capacity for quality (such as training initiatives) into action remain a challenge.

The Safe Delivery App is a tool that will be used to translate these efforts into action, helping to ensure that high quality trainings translate into improvements in practical application of quality of care, as it can be taught in training and then follow nurses and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) as tool to be easily referenced in practice, and used to facilitate on-going mentorship efforts.

“We are excited to see the Hindi version of the Safe Delivery App launched in India,” says Pompy Sridhar, MSD for Mothers India Country Director.  “MSD for Mothers see this solution as a low-cost, engaging complement to the more traditional clinical obstetric training and provides a critical job aid tool for frontline health workers who have limited resources at their fingertips.”

The Government of India (GoI), with support from Jhpiego, plans to integrate the Indian Safe Delivery App into existing program structure, efforts and initiatives including providing the App to health workers in the Daksh, Dakshata and Lakshya programs. These programs are part a wider set of initiatives to improve the quality and standard of care at delivery points in several states across India. The App will also be linked to the mentoring activities of these quality improvement initiatives.

“We want to get the app into the hands of as many skilled birth attendants as possible, especially in country like India where so many skilled birth attendants have access to smartphones,” explained Anna Frellsen, Chief Executive Officer of the Maternity Foundation.

Maternity Foundation will continue to collaborate with Jhpiego India and the Government of India to now implement and roll-out the Indian Safe Delivery App with goals of achieving impact and scale, and welcomes other organizations in India to implement it as well.

Photo: A team effort! from left to right Vikas Yadav Program Director Jhpiego India, Vandana Gurnani Joint Secretary RCH, Dr. Bulbul Sood Country Director Jhpiego, Dr. Dinesh Baswal Deputy Commissioner Maternal Health GoI, Chris Lukolyo Senior Partnership Manager Maternity Foundation and Pompy Sridhar, Country Director of MSD for Mothers.