A young Nigerian: Miss
Kesandu Nwokolo, has developed a mobile phone application, to help reduce the
incident of infant and maternal mortality in Africa
. A statement released in
Lagos on Sunday said that the innovative healthcare application developed by
Nwokolo and her team is known as CradleCount’. ”What is interesting is that
many young Africans with technology and innovation are beginning to provide the
needed solution to the problems of the continent” it said. CradleCount helps
pregnant women and also health practitioners to calculate accurately the
expected date of delivery using the last menstrual period.
”The app informs
pregnant women how many days to the delivery of the baby and has alerts that
remind pregnant mothers to register and follow up with their antenatal care the
statement said. It also sends regular pregnancy and health tips to expectant
mothers and the app can also work without an internet
connection. CradleCount said the app is well designed with good aesthetic
values and background colours that mothers can change depending on the sex of
the baby they are expecting. It said that CradleCount was free to download and
easy to use, as a pregnant woman or health practitioner for pregnant women and
could be downloaded through Google Play store.
According to the
statement, the health sector in Africa needs a lot of innovative ideas to
reduce poor health related deaths like maternal and infant mortality. It quoted
UNICEF as saying that, every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five
year olds and 145 women of child-bearing age, making the country the second
largest contributor to the under “five and maternal mortality rate in the
world.” Several research and Statistics from organizations like WHO,UNICEF,
National Demographic and Health Survey(NDHS) have shown that everyday about 90
women in Nigeria die of pregnancy related conditions. ”A woman’s chance of
dying from pregnancy and childbirth in Nigeria is one in every 13. Nigeria has
the 10th highest maternal mortality in the world the statement. The statement
said although many of these deaths are preventable, the coverage and quality of
health care services in Nigeria continue to fail women and children.
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