Commitment title:

Reaching 250,000 skilled birth attendants with the Safe Delivery App

Commitment description:

In order to reach the target of ending all preventable maternal deaths by 2030 there is a need for increased focus on quality of care. Today more women die due to poor quality of care than lack of care. Up to 80% of maternal deaths can be prevented if the mother has access to skilled care during pregnancy and childbirth.

Together with Universities of Copenhagen and Southern Denmark, Maternity Foundation has developed the Safe Delivery App, an evidence-based mobile application that provides skilled birth attendants with instant and up-to-date clinical guidelines on how to handle complications during pregnancy and childbirth. The App consists of 12 content modules addressing key interventions of childbirth emergencies, all aligned to international guidelines. The Safe Delivery App is available for free download in key global language versions as well as several country-specific versions. Currently, the App is being used in 40 countries and has been downloaded over 100,000 times.

In close collaboration with our programmatic partners, we roll out the Safe Delivery App as an integrated part of training programs, educational programs and on-the-job support for skilled birth attendants in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. We are increasingly also working in areas affected by humanitarian crisis. We work with implementing partners to optimize the potential of the Safe Delivery App to impact the knowledge, skills and confidence of skilled birth attendants and ultimately improve the quality of care delivered to mothers and their newborns.

As part of our vision that no woman should die giving life, we commit to reaching 250,000 skilled birth attendants with the Safe Delivery App by the end of 2021 and thereby help ensure a safer childbirth for millions of women and newborns. To accomplish this, we aim to have rolled out the Safe Delivery App in 20 countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.

Mode of engagement:
  • Programmatic action
    Rolling out the digital learning tool for skilled birth attendants, the Safe Delivery App, to help ensure higher quality of care for mothers and newborns, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.
Commitment to be actioned in: global
Submitted from: global
Submitted by
Maternity Foundation
Thematic area
Achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health as a part of universal health coverage (UHC)
Commitment category

(3) Zero preventable maternal deaths and maternal morbidities, such as obstetric fistulas, by, inter alia, integrating a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health interventions, including access to safe abortion to the full extent of the law, measures for preventing and avoiding unsafe abortions, and for the provision of post-abortion care, into national UHC strategies, policies and programmes, and to protect and ensure all individuals’ right to bodily integrity, autonomy and reproductive rights, and to provide access to essential services in support of these rights.