Mon bébé et moi
A tool for m-health so that women in Burkina Faso have a better knowledge of pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period during COVID-19 and beyond
Maternal mortality in Burkina Faso is 330 deaths per 100,000 live births as a result of several factors such as the poor quality of obstetric and prenatal care, the scarce availability of health personnel, the difficulty of access to these services for people in rural areas and other socio-economic factors.
The health system in Burkina is fragile and the current COVID-19 pandemic will undermine it with the rapid increase in demand to which health facilities and health personnel must respond in addition to routine activities. Furthermore, the systematic adoption of hygiene measures, the individual protection of health workers and community health workers is often not guaranteed, and staff themselves become a possible source of COVID-19 transmission.
In a context where very large proportions of the population do not have access to information on infection prevention and control measures (water, soap, disinfectants) and live in extremely poor hygienic and sanitary conditions, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic could be catastrophic.
In this context, it is necessary to ensure that pregnant women are not "forgotten" - and therefore specific messages about pregnancy / breastfeeding in relation to COVID-19 are provided.
Pregnancy is an extremely emotionally charged period for the (future) mother and there is a real risk that pregnant women may restrict their movements in health centres for fear of contracting COVID-19 infection or because it is difficult to move around[1]. Therefore, despite the pandemic, it is essential that women have access to quality care. It is crucial to rely on information and communication technologies (ICT) to enable women to access information to stay healthy during the pregnancy, to prepare for childbirth and first aid so that, once informed, they can make the decision to apply behaviour that is favourable to their health and that of their newborn, which is even more important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. ICT also makes it possible to reach the non-literate public by relying as much as possible on images and audio or video formats.