JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Despite global goals to improve maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes, mortality and morbidity continue to be a concern, particularly during the postnatal period in low and middle-income countries. While mothers have the responsibility of providing ongoing care for newborns at home, they often receive insufficient newborn care education in Tanzania. mHealth via text messaging is an ever-growing approach that may address this gap and provide timely education.

Objective:

To evaluate a text message intervention called Essential Coaching for Every Mother Tanzania (ECEM-TZ) to improve maternal access to essential newborn care education during the immediate 6-week postnatal period.

Methods:

ECEM-TZ consists of standardized text messages from birth to 6 weeks postpartum that provide evidence-based information on caring for their newborn and recognizing danger signs. Messages were developed and then reviewed by Tanzanian mothers and nurse midwives prior to implementation. A hybrid III randomized controlled trial (RCT) will compare ECEM-TZ to standard care among mothers (n=200) recruited from two hospitals in Dar es Salaam. The implementation outcomes include the reach and quality of the ECEM-TZ intervention. The effectiveness outcomes include newborn care knowledge, maternal self-efficacy, breastfeeding self-efficacy, maternal mental health, attendance at the six-week postnatal check-up, and newborn morbidity and mortality.

Results:

Recruitment of the study began in June 2024.

Conclusions:

This study will generate evidence about the feasibility and effectiveness outcomes of implementing text messaging during the early postnatal period. The intervention has been designed in collaboration with mothers and nurse midwives in Tanzania. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05362305