A key driver of maternal deaths is that mothers are not empowered or informed to seek care at the appropriate time. In Kenya, delays in care seeking contribute to a third of all maternal deaths in the country. Empowering women with knowledge is critical; 91% of women would seek care if they knew and recognized pregnancy and postpartum danger signs.
PROMPTS is an AI-enabled digital health service that, through two-way SMS exchange, empowers women to seek care at the right time and place, and gives them greater agency in the health system. The platform improves care-seeking behaviour by sending mothers SMS messages tracked to their stage of pregnancy, alongside an AI-enabled helpdesk service that triages and responds to mothers’ questions, and sparks a rapid referral chain if a risk is identified.
new and expecting mothers enrolled to PROMPTS
increase in mothers attending 4+ prenatal care visits
increase in uptake of postpartum family planning services
of high-risk mothers flagged by PROMPTS get care at the hospital
of PROMPTS mothers exclusively breastfeed for the first six months after delivery
From the beginning, we designed PROMPTS to have low unit costs so that it can sustainably scale and integrate within government work plans and budgets as a pathway to long-term sustainability. Kenyan county governments are increasingly contributing towards the platform’s running costs, and we work with other partners – like local telecoms – to achieve economies of scale as we grow. The platform is built with and for mothers to advance equity, uptake and adoption, and relies on locally-developed technology that scales and adapts easily to new contexts and languages with minimal enhancements.
Users sign up to PROMPTS for free in public health facilities
$0.74 lifetime cost of a mother on PROMPTS
15% of PROMPTS operating costs are covered by Kenyan county governments
3 partnerships with National Ministries of Health to scale PROMPTS
When Violet arrived home with her new baby, Pendo, she began to lose confidence. She could feel the days becoming more and more of a challenge, and finally reached out – anonymously – to PROMPTS for support. She was surprised how quickly support came – first with a message asking if she’d like further follow-up, and then through a call with a local counseling service specializing in postpartum depression.
When, midway through pregnancy, Millicent noticed she was bleeding, she messaged PROMPTS to check if this was normal.
It was a lifeline.