Improving maternal health access for communities with low literacy

Low literate women navigating the maternal health sector are our immediate beneficiaries. Other stakeholders (community supports, hospital staff, health systems funders) will also be involved in codesigning implementation of the informational videos. This codesign process is a community-driven health activity. It is a necessary step towards building empathy between stakeholders who are often seen has having conflicting agendas within the birth space. This also encourages their buy-in as they may be able to facilitate ways around roadblocks to implementing the videos within the wider maternal health setting. Videos will be accessible on hospital/ health system websites and the Shifra webapp.

Community members with low literacy rates face increased barriers to health access. Many health resources contain large amounts of medical jargon and complex language and rely on the user to be able to read or have an interpreter or family member explain the information to them. In maternal health, low literacy is associated with poorer birth outcomes. There is a clear need for evidence-based health information to be made more understandable and available in both audio and visual forms. Information presented in these ways has been shown to improve informed decision making and reduce risk in the healthcare setting.