Providing a lifeline for more than a million families in South Africa
When you are preparing to become a parent, it is vital that you can access health information and support. Vodacom’s Mum & Baby service provides free information about pregnancy and childcare via mobile devices for parents-to-be in South Africa. This includes regular text messages, articles, tutorials, videos, an immunisation calendar and a pregnancy medicine checker.
Since 2017, Mum & Baby has helped 1.5 million parents and caregivers to take positive action to improve their child’s health. In South Africa, where there are only 1.2 nurses for every thousand people and where it can be difficult for families in rural communities to get to health centres, Mum & Baby has provided a lifeline for many parents. Joe Griffin, Senior Manager, Sustainability Strategy at Vodafone Group, says, “This programme has really helped our customers to make significant behavioural changes around breastfeeding, immunisation and regular clinic visits. We’ve also heard of fathers who are enthusiastic about nutrition and cooking now or who no longer smoke in the house because of the information they received.”
An independent study by KPMG assessed the socio-economic contribution of Vodacom’s Mum & Baby mobile service. 98% of the mothers and pregnant women surveyed said they had taken action to improve their child’s health because of the information they received, 96% agreed that Mum & Baby helped with their decision to vaccinate their child – indeed, it is estimated that more than 650,000 mothers and babies have been vaccinated as a result of the service.
