via wn.com

(CP-Africa)- CNN has an interesting video feature on how the use of mobile phones are helping solve access to health care and coordination problems in Rwanda.

-For instance, hospitals are tracking expectant mothers via text messages. Expectant mothers also text updates to the hospitals about their health statuses and all these are stored in a health database. This helps the hospital track the mothers’ progress from the first trimester to the last.

- Why is this a big deal? Rwanda is notorious for having one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world (the seventh highest according to the WHO). Since the launch of this program last year in the Musanzi district of Rwanda, there has been no reported cases of maternal death.

- Given the success of the project, the Rwandan government has plans of scaling it considerably across Rwanda. This is good news.

Watch the CNN video below

Musanze, Rwanda (CNN) — The Rwandan government is giving out hundreds of cell phones in an attempt to save pregnant women and babies.

Nearly 500 volunteer community health care workers in the rural district of Musanze have been given free phones so they can keep track of all the pregnant women in their villages.

The cell phones are used to register and monitor expecting mothers. If there are any questions, complications or updates, health workers simply send a text to their local clinic and receive a response within minutes.

A cell phone got 23-year-old Valentine Unwingabire the help she desperately needed. In the middle of the night Unwingabire unexpectedly went into labor and her village health worker, Germaine Uwera, knew exactly what to do. Read more here