Ifakara Health Institute and partners today in Dar es Salaam officially launched a Swahili version of the Safe Delivery App – a mobile training tool and job aid for healthcare workers to ensure safer childbirths for mothers and newborns in Tanzania.

The brief launching event was held at the Julius Nyerere Convention Center as part of the Annual Scientific Conference on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health which started on November 17 and is scheduled to end today.

This App is a collaborative effort between Ifakara, the Maternity Foundation, the Danish Embassy in Tanzania and the Ole Kirk Foundation. The tool is designed to give Tanzania’s midwives and other skilled birth attendants access to essential guidelines and information through mobile devices for them to manage childbirth related situations.

The App is free and works offline, and it uses simple, intuitive animated instructions to guide healthcare workers in basic emergency obstetric and newborn care as well as management of Covid-19. It includes videos, quizzes, descriptions of practical procedures, and drug lists that midwives and healthcare workers can always refer to – on the job, either in their spare time or as part of their training.

Read the press release on the official launching event here.

Work to develop a Swahili version of the App work was led by Ifakara with other important local partners including Pediatrics Association of Tanzania (PAT), and the Association of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (AGOTA) contributing with thorough review and adaptation of the clinical content of the App.

“We are very happy to now be able to get the Safe Delivery App into the hands of midwives and other skilled birth attendants across Tanzania. They save lives every day, and with this new addition to their work and training, we can support them in that – thanks to great partnerships on the ground,” says Anna Felsen, CEO of the Maternity Foundation.

“We’re optimistic about the future: In the years ahead, our mission remains to identify priority health needs of our people and to create scalable solutions for them. With the Safe Delivery App, our healthcare workers now have new tools to always refer to, update their knowledge and skills on how to handle different complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, so that no life should be lost during childbirth,” says Donat Shamba, Project Coordinator, Tanzania.

The Danish Ambassador to Tanzania, Mette Nørgaard Dissing-Spandet, is also happy that the Swahili version of the App is finally being launched: “Improving maternal and new-born health is Danish and Tanzanian priority. With the App, I hope that we will see a reduction in the number of mothers dying while giving life”. The Danish Ambassador is also eager to see that the Safe Delivery App is being institutionalized in the health care system in order to provide sustainable results.

Learn more about this App here.