Abstract

Introduction

The MamaCare360 Programme is the Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s flagship maternal care initiative, designed to improve maternal and child health outcomes through comprehensive antenatal and postnatal education. Delivered both in-person and digitally by trained midwives, the programme equips pregnant women and nursing mothers with essential health information to support informed decision-making, promote safe pregnancy and childbirth, and encourage proper newborn care.

To extend its reach beyond physical sessions, the MamaCare360 Digital Midwifery Service was launched in 2017. This digital extension leverages platforms like WhatsApp to provide mothers with round-the-clock, culturally responsive health education and counselling. By combining weekly in-person classes with 24/7 digital engagement, the MamaCare360 model fosters health literacy, strengthens positive health-seeking behaviours, and helps to reduce preventable maternal and child mortality—particularly in underserved and low-resource settings.

Discussion:
Using WhatsApp, a widely accessible messaging platform in Nigeria, WBFA delivers continuous health education, counseling, and peer support to new and expectant mothers. The Digital Midwifery program addresses key barriers such as limited access to healthcare professionals, geographic constraints, and knowledge gaps. Beyond information delivery, the groups foster peer interaction and community-based learning, which boosts maternal confidence and decision-making capacity.

Evidence:
By 2024, the initiative had expanded to 29 WhatsApp groups with 3,223 new mothers, bringing the total number of participants to 12,329. A case in point is Grace, a nursing mother in Lagos, who overcame breastfeeding difficulties after receiving real-time guidance from trained midwives and peer mothers in the group. Her confidence improved, and she now supports other mothers, demonstrating the platform's potential for sustainability and peer-led reinforcement.

Key Message:
The Mamacare360 Digital Midwifery Service illustrates how digital platforms can be leveraged to provide inclusive, scalable, and impactful maternal health education. By bridging service delivery gaps, this model offers a practical solution for improving maternal and newborn health outcomes, especially in low-resource settings.