Patient-centred group antenatal care model: LEA MIMBA CLUB
Management Science for Health (MSH)
Creating and adapting a pregnancy communal care and support model for young women and adolescent girls in east Africa. The goal was to adapt the group antenatal care (ANC) model for Kenya context and create a demand for the service among women and wider community.
My Role: Service Designer and Client Manager
Management Science for Health were looking into an opportunity to adapt a communal care model for Kenya. Thus, ask for a contextually redesign care model and strategies for increasing community awareness.
The result is an established LEA MIMBA CLUB. The branded club communicates effective messages to assure community’s buy-in for women attending the care. Additionally, we came up a full report, guideline, booklet and tools based on a redefined service journey to improve healthcare providers’ workload and lower the barriers for women joining the club.
1,600 women
were enrolled to LEA MIMBA CLUB
20% increased retention rate
the new model helped achieve
55 min counselling time
experienced by each mother, increased from 6 min
1 new location
the model was taken to Guatemala for piloting in 2019
1,600 women
were enrolled to LEA MIMBA CLUB
20% increased retention rate
the new model helped achieve
1 new location
the model was taken to Guatemala for piloting in 2019
55 min counselling time
experienced by each mother, increased from 6 min
To learn about how women experience pregnancy in their community and how community thinks about pregnancy care, we spent two weeks in rural areas conducting interviews and generative sessions with various stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the group care model was prototyped through several mock sessions at early process. These experiential prototype sessions allow us to observe and collect feedback on how users perceive the current care model and identify gaps for quick concept iteration.
It's not a decision only made by her.
There are lots of players influence whether a pregnant woman could attend ANC. From mother-in-law, father-to-be, peers to wider community, everyone plays a part in the decision-making process.
No bump no baby! Superstitions and cultural ideas influence when the pregnancy is acknowledged
Pregnancy is only socially acknowledged toward the end of the second trimester when the pregnancy belly is shown. Consequently, this late acknowledgement deters women from going a health facility early in their pregnancy.
The health of women doesn't seem to be in association with baby.
Observation and opportunities to improve service flow
It's not a decision only made by her.
There are lots of players influence whether a pregnant woman could attend ANC. From mother-in-law, father-to-be, peers to wider community, everyone plays a part in the decision-making process.
No bump no baby! Superstitions and cultural ideas influence when the pregnancy is acknowledged
Pregnancy is only socially acknowledged toward the end of the second trimester when the pregnancy belly is shown. Consequently, this late acknowledgement deters women from going a health facility early in their pregnancy.
The health of women doesn't seem to be in association with baby.
Observation and opportunities to improve service flow
The redesigned care model was built upon and delivered through Lea Mimba Club along with a set of communication materials to enable a supporting environment for women to attend the care. In addition, several service elements were redesigned in detailed to fit the context of Kenya and ease healthcare providers’ workload to implement the new service.
Finally, a number of new service tools design iteration were tested with users to ensure the final outputs are intuitive to use, low-cost and easy to resource locally.
This was found to be impactful and relevant across all touch-points, and target groups, with the ability to be crafted to suit any audience.
The message is adapted to multi-purpose media e.g. the LEA MIMIBA club, a calendar, song, poster etc. which allows the community to build a greater link between a health pregnancy and a healthy baby, and generates more positive ANC behaviour by relying on few resources.
In the right are examples of adapting the key message to the key players. The key message has been kept flexible to allow for further iteration to suit key players involved in the decision-making matrix.
The tools are designed to ease nurses pressure of memorizing the content of curriculum needed to teach in the session. In addition, turn the heavy information sharing into an interactive activity for women. The new group flow and tools developed are illustrated onto one page summary that serves as a navigator/job aid for nurses.
Interested to know more?
Drop me a line. I’m always happy to meet new people and chat over coffee!
hello.fangyi@gmail.com