Can a Text Message Save a Mother's Life? An Exploration of Mobile Health in Ethiopia
- Zebeaman Tibebu
- 14 hours ago
- 4 min read
"Sometimes, the most powerful intervention isn't a surgery, a medicine, or even a doctor. Sometimes, it's a single message—delivered at the right moment, to the right woman, in the right place."
Imagine a mother in the Ethiopian highlands holding her gravid abdomen. She has not attended her last two antenatal appointments. Amidst all her chores and responsibilities, she shouldered, she forgot again. She cares truly, yet her clinic is far away, transport is unsafe, and the days blur into each other in chores, childcare, and survival.
Then, picture this same mother receives a text message:
She nods, making a plan to go to the hospital the next day. And that small nudge—only ten words—may be the difference between death and life.
This isn’t a far-fetched story. It’s a glimpse into the quiet revolution transforming maternal healthcare in Ethiopia and beyond. It’s called mobile health, or mHealth, and it is slowly proving that technology doesn’t have to be loud to be life-saving.
The Struggle Behind the Statistics
Ethiopia has made major strides in maternal health over the past two decades. But the numbers still whisper tragedy.
Just 43% of women receive the recommended four or more antenatal care visits
According to the 2019 Ethiopian Mini Demographic and Health Survey.
Fifty percent give birth with a skilled birth attendant.
Only one-third of mothers (34%) receive postnatal care (PNC).
These aren't statistics. These are testimonies of mothers giving birth without anyone to turn to, of lost babies, of undiagnosed complications.
Behind each statistic is a woman who may not have known when to leave, how to arrive, or why it was so important.
Distance, deprivation, and health system gaps remain in the way of too many mothers. Women residing nearer to a health facility—30 minutes or less—are more than twice as likely to have maternal health services as those two hours or more away. Urban-rural inequalities, poor infrastructure, and ineffective health information flow widen the gap.
And that's where digital health comes in quietly.
The Power of a Ping
Across the country, cell phones are becoming more common, even in rural areas. In urban centers like Addis Ababa, all individuals have a phone, and digital tools are being used for banking, texting, and daily chores. Why not save lives too?
mHealth uses simple technology—SMS reminders, mobile apps, and electronic records—to connect women with care. And it's working.
Take, for instance, Northwest Ethiopia, where digitizing health records in communities tripled the number of women receiving the full continuum of maternal care. It increased from 10.6% to 32.5%. That means more mothers accessing ANC, delivering to professionals, and returning for PNC.
A review of middle- and low-income countries discovered that mHealth interventions improve children's immunization and antenatal attendance rates. And in Ethiopia, technology like the Electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS) is being rolled out to allow health workers to track pregnancy, warn of danger signs, and trace away missing mothers.
In centres like St. Paul's in Addis Ababa, reminders by SMS & call have recently been introduced to remind pregnant women to return for their ANC visits, deliver in facilities, and return for follow-up. These messages are short, simple, and culturally tailored. They don't replace doctors. They help them.
And perhaps most importantly, they reach women where they are—at their convenience, in their control, in their own hands.
A Cost-Effective Lifeline
We typically conceptualize innovation as being expensive. But a carefully constructed SMS reminder program is less than one dollar per user in the majority of settings.
Compared to the expense of emergency obstetric care—or the psychological cost of a lost mother or infant—this is one of the cheapest tools in our arsenal.
In the Amhara region, health workers using a mobile-based maternal and child health program not only considered it acceptable and feasible, but life-changing in terms of delivery of services. These technologies remind, record, and respond—so no mother gets lost in the cracks of the system.
Beyond the Text: A Change in Thinking
The best thing about mHealth is not so much the messages, but the shift in thinking.
It says: "You are not forgotten. Your life matters. And we will reach out to you before it's too late."
It gives health workers better data. It gives women a voice, a schedule, and a plan. And it puts public health outside of the clinic and into the community—into her hands.
Can a Text Message Save a Life?
Maybe not single-handedly, but it can send a mother off, prepare a midwife, make a father stand by, and connect the dots in a system that too often leaves women behind.
In a country where one in four women still receives no ANC, and where maternal death remains at 267 per 100,000 live births, all help is needed.
And sometimes, the smallest gesture is a message.
Sent. Received. Applied.
That is the soft power of mobile health. That is the message that Ethiopia is beginning to send—not just with phones, but with hope.