GiftedMom: the health assistant for pregnant women and new mothers

In sub-Saharan Africa, the mother-child mortality rate remains considerably high. The Cameroonian start-up GiftedMom wants to improve access to health care for pregnant women and young mothers in order to curb this sad phenomenon.

Giftedmom is a digital medical monitoring platform for pregnant women and young mothers. A social enterprise based in Yaoundé, it has a clear ambition: to democratize access to health care through technology in order to considerably reduce the number of pregnancy-related deaths.

An artificial intelligence platform for mother-child health

In concrete terms, with GiftedMom’s services, users receive, via SMS or Facebook messenger, personalized medical advice during and after their pregnancy, reminders of their prenatal consultation dates; they can ask questions related to their pregnancy and their baby’s health; they can carry out the medical follow-up of their newborn (vaccinations…). They can also have access to remote consultations with doctors or find specialists and laboratories for analysis.

The application now has over 80,000 users in Cameroon, mainly in rural areas, and works in partnership with 37 health centers.

The start-up was founded in 2013 by Alain Nteff, a computer engineer and Dr. Agbor Ashu. They are supported by an experienced and complementary team of 11 people.

Reducing maternal and infant mortality in West and Central Africa.

According to the WHO, in sub-Saharan Africa, children are 15 times more likely to die before the age of 5 than in high-income countries.

For example, in Cameroon, only one in three pregnant women receive the four recommended medical visits during pregnancy. And more than half of all deliveries take place without the presence of qualified medical personnel (midwife, nurse, doctor).

Most maternal deaths could be prevented if all women received medical support and emergency care.

The results of GiftedMom’s services are already evident on the ground: in the areas where their platform is deployed, the number of deaths following childbirth has decreased considerably and partner health centers have seen their prenatal consultation rate increase by 35% in 2 years.

Africa-wide ambitions

GiftedMom is already very successful. The company has won countless awards and honors in recent years since its inception: the Anzisha Award in 2014, the Best Social Entrepreneur of Africa Award from the MasterCard Foundation, the New York Africa Forum’s African Startup Award in 2015, the Queen’s Young Leaders Award from Queen Elizabeth II of England, the Total Startup of the Year Award in 2016…

The start-up does not intend to rest on its laurels and intends to continue its development by offering more and more services to mothers and pregnant women. The company also aims to extend its services to other African countries: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal…

Photo credit: GiftedMom