Starting in January 2017, expectant mothers in rural Pakistan will be able to sign up for a voice message service that will give them simple healthcare tips over the course of their pregnancies, urging them to eat more iron, for example, or to get a certain vaccine.
This might sound ho-hum to people who live in the US and Canada, where many parents-to-be track every little aspect of their pregnancy through an array of gadgets and apps. But the picture is different in Pakistan, which has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world—specifically, the highest rate of first-day deaths and stillbirths, at 40.6 per 1,000 births, according to a 2014 Save The Children report. Compare this to Canada, where approximately 2.5 per 1,000 births result in same-day deaths. [...]
For example, a woman may receive a message describing body changes she can expect during the pregnancy, such as soreness in her breasts. However, the word “breasts” would be changed to “upper body” or more subtle language to suit a rural Pakistani audience.
Although many Pakistanis don’t have reliable access to healthcare, 87 percent of households do have access to a cell phone, according to one 2012 report. Since there may be only one phone for a family, and not one for every individual woman, Ammi is being marketed as a family service. “The reality is that a man will likely see the messages first and pass on the information to his wife or family member,” said Shafiq.
Illiteracy is another hurdle, especially in rural areas. The total adult literacy rate in Pakistan is 80 percent for males between the ages of 15-24 and 67 percent for females percent for females in the same age range, according to UNESCO. That’s why a voice message, as opposed to a text message, is vital to get the words across.
Although some aspects of the service may initially be free to the user, Ammi is not a charity. It is a business that hopes to generate revenue by charging users a small subscription-based fee. While the co-founders couldn’t reveal to Motherboard exactly how much it will cost users, they are aiming for it to be around 0.15 CDN cents per month, or under $1 for the nine-month duration of pregnancy.
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