Project Lead(s): Liza Robee Ong
Issue
In the Philippines, 200,000 teenagers become mothers each year. The majority of these girls belong to low-income communities with poor access to mental health resources and emotional support. These issues are exacerbated by the social stigma surrounding teen pregnancies.
Postpartum depression (PPD) occurs in 10-18% of women following the birth of their child. Social stigma and low health service access have culminated in a precarious situation for pregnant girls in the Philippines, as many communities do not have regularly available mental health professionals and counsellors.
Solution
The ‘ParentUp’ app aimed to provide informational and emotional support to mothers between pregnancy and their child’s early years using SMS messages and tools to screen women for PPD.
The service connected mothers to appropriate caregivers via community health centers. Parents used a support hotline for one-on-one discussions with midwives, lactation consultants, and volunteer parents.
The refined application allowed mothers to send health questions via SMS messages to local health experts. The program required a fee of 1 peso to sign up.
The project had 2 phases:
- Research phase: Used surveys to analyze the awareness of PPD in Caloocan.
- Pilot phase: Gained further insights by interviewing low-income mothers in Taguig to refine the system. This was followed by a full launch of the app in Markina.
Outcome
The project found 90% of mothers felt the app’s services were helpful and credible. Mothers primarily used the system to ask questions regarding their concerns about maternal and child health.
It was noted that mothers were cost-sensitive and often unwilling to spend 1 peso on the program. Furthermore, many mothers sought validation and verification of information from family members as they are traditional information sources.