Meet the group

PharmAccess is a group of non-profit organizations dedicated to improving access to quality healthcare in Africa. PharmAccess mobilizes public and private resources for the benefit of doctors and patients through clinical standards and quality improvements, loans for healthcare providers, health insurance, mHealth innovations and operational research.

This integrated approach is made possible by the following organizations:

Visit website
Visit website
Visit website
Visit website
Country Offices

 Country Offices

 

Ghana
Kenya
Nigeria
Tanzania
Contact
  • Who we are
  • Our approach
  • News & Publications

PharmAccess Foundation
AHTC, Tower 4C
Paasheuvelweg 25
1105 BP Amsterdam
The Netherlands

T: +31 (0)20 2103920
E: info@pharmaccess.org

  • Who we are
  • Our approach
  • News & Publications
Library
  • Aug 17, 2020

What keeps pregnant women from attending care?

What keeps pregnant women from attending care? What are the reasons for their late enrolment in antenatal care? Which factors would increase skilled birth attendance?

This study seeks to answer these questions using data from more than 1,500 pregnant women enrolled in the MomCare program in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Kakamega counties in Kenya. It assesses patterns of adherence to antenatal care (ANC), and identifies key challenges in attending ANC visits and skilled delivery. Moreover, it offers insights for the design of more effective antenatal care interventions in the future.

Antenatal care is a critical factor in reducing complications and death ratios for mothers and infants during the maternal journey. However, the costs of high-quality antenatal care are an obstacle to seeking care for many women in Sub-Saharan Africa [1]. Additionally, pregnant women often prefer to postpone their first ANC visit as long as possible, which leaves them at a greater risk of developing unnoticed complications. Moreover, coverage of skilled birth attendants in 2018 was only 59 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, further contributing to the consistently high maternal and infant mortality rates.

In Kenya alone, more than 6,000 maternal deaths, and 35,000 stillbirths occur each year [2]. In fact, the maternal mortality rate in Kenya is 139 percent higher than the average of lower-middle-income countries [3][4]. With a well-functioning health system, most of these deaths would be avoidable. Predictions show that nearly 160,000 more newborn lives could be saved in Sub-Saharan Africa if 90 percent of women received ANC instead of the current 69 percent [5].

To eliminate these preventable deaths, PharmAccess Foundation initiated MomCare in November 2017 to support pregnant women and providers of maternity care.  MomCare mainly incentivizes ‘adherence to care’-journeys through a digitally-enabled smart contract. MomCare enrolls pregnant women in a partly or fully subsidized health insurance program and offers them a ‘health wallet’ on their mobile phone which they can use to check-in and pay at the clinic. The health wallet runs on a mobile platform that enables sending nudges, reminders for check-ups and rewards to patients to improve their adherence to care, while simultaneously rewarding providers financially for quality care provision when women complete their journey.

Read the policy brief here. 

Share
  • Aug 17, 2020
  • Antenatal Care Visits Policy Brief - June 2020
Tags: MomCare Report Research Technology women

Suggested further reads

The Lancet: Our future health depends on radical change in approach to digital technologies, experts say
Digital transformations can improve health for all people around the world. But this is only possible if digital technology is governed in the public interest rather than for private profit, according to a new Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030: growing up in a digital world.
Nov 01, 2021 publication
Policy brief: A multifaceted intervention to improve clinical quality of care through stepwise certification (SafeCare)
For the purpose of making a recently published study on SafeCare easily accessible and understandable for a broad range of relevant stakeholders, PharmAccess created a policy brief.
Aug 06, 2021 publication
Progress Report 2020 – driving long-term health system change in a year like no other
Our Progress Report 2020 is now available. In this Report we set out how a quality, low-cost sustainable health care sector can look like.

Jul 09, 2021 publication
Quickly go to
  • Home
  • Management & Board
  • Our partners
  • Reporting
  • Vacancies
  • Contact
  • Publications
Follow us
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Management & Board
  • Our partners
  • Reporting
  • Vacancies
  • Contact
  • Publications
  • Kenya
  • Nigeria
  • Ghana
  • Tanzania
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • PharmAccess@Medium
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy statement
  • © 2022 PharmAccess Group. All rights reserved.
Our COVID-19 response
To serve you better and more personal we make use of cookies.

Accept
Read more
Change Settings
Cookie Box Settings privacy settings
Cookie Box Settings privacy settings

Privacy settings

Decide which cookies you want to allow. You can change these settings at any time. However, this can result in some functions no longer being available. For information on deleting the cookies, please consult your browser’s help function. Learn more about the cookies we use via our privacy statement.

With the slider, you can enable or disable different types of cookies:

  • Block all
  • Essential
  • Functionality
  • Analytics

This website will:

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies.
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies.
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settingsl Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Advertising: Use information for tailored advertising with third parties
  • Advertising: Allow you to connect to social sites
  • Advertising: Identify device you are using
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settingsl Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Use information for tailored advertising with third parties
  • Advertising: Allow you to connect to social sitesl Advertising: Identify device you are using
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
Save & Close