MomConnect to educate all expectant mothers with informative SMSs

IN an effort to help expectant mothers by connecting them to the country’s healthcare system, health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, launched MomConnect in Pretoria last Thursday.

The MomConnect SMS messaging initiative is a joint project by United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) and partners like the Make-Up Art Cosmetics Aids Fund.

It aims to reduce the impact of challenges faced by pregnant mothers during their pregnancies.

These challenges include knowing when to go for a check-up to ensure the babies are growing properly.

The South African government rolled out the programme in KwaZulu-Natal in June 2012.

MomConnect uses text messages to remind pregnant women of critical appointments for tests and check-ups and to deliver health and childcare information.

These messages arrive throughout the pregnancy until the baby is 18 months old.

Registering with the department allows a pregnant woman to start receiving SMS messages that speak to her stage of pregnancy.

This can be done by dialling *134*550#.

The Unicef funding provided will cover the costs of running the project for the next two years.

Motsoaledi said after the two years, funding would come from the national health budget.

All four cellular networks in South Africa, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom, have already agreed to give the department a 50% discount on the cost of these SMSs.

Provincial health spokesperson, Macks Lesufi, said the provincial department was also involved in this project, and he encouraged all women to get involved.

He said any cell phone could be used.

“Clinics in the province are ready to help with registration.

Six languages have been loaded so far and the rest of the languages will be loaded to make it accessible to all women, no matter the language they speak,” Lesufi said about the new system.