Group antenatal care model tested with health care professionals and mothers-to-be in Kenya

Building on our work in Uganda, M4ID now helps adapt group antenatal care model in Kenya.
February 1, 2018

Antenatal care, the care received from healthcare professionals during pregnancy, has traditionally been provided on a one-on-one basis. However, in recent years group care models have emerged as a promising approach to deliver care for women during pregnancy.

Together with Management Sciences for Health (MSH), M4ID designed and customised a group antenatal care model for Uganda in the communities of Mbale and Bududa in 2016.  Building on the successful Ugandan model and tools, M4ID was tasked in 2017 to adapt key elements of that model to Kenya using a human-centred design approach.

After conducting intensive desk research and field work in Kakamega county in Western Kenya, M4ID has designed job aids, community engagement models, and revised visual materials for the group-based care of pregnant women in the Kenyan context. An important insight gathered from the field is the need for engaging the community as a whole – the families’ attitudes towards care throughout pregnancy vary significantly, and the connection between antenatal care and a healthy pregnancy, mother and baby is often still unclear.

The antenatal model will continue to be rolled out in Kenya during 2018 to ensure that the tools are of value to the community and to the bolstering the group antenatal care model.

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