Zimbabwe: Ai Midwife Seeks to Fill Gaps in Zimbabwe's Maternal Health Care
[RFI] Mutare, Zimbabwe - With public health services stretched thin, women in Zimbabwe sometimes struggle to access reliable information about pregnancy and childbirth. A locally developed app aims to answer their questions and direct them to appropriate care, in an example of the potential of artificial intelligence to ease pressure on overloaded health systems.
Mutare, Zimbabwe - In Zimbabwe, public health services are often overwhelmed, leaving women struggling to access reliable information about pregnancy and childbirth. An AI-powered chatbot, DawaMom, developed by DawaHealth, aims to fill this gap by providing validated medical information and connecting users with licensed healthcare workers via WhatsApp.
Samantha Murungweni, a 25-year-old woman from Greendale in Harare, found DawaMom helpful during her pregnancy, using it to ask about healthy foods, back pain, frequent urination, and fetal movements. The chatbot's responses, drawn from a verified database compiled from medical sources, felt like talking to a real midwife. DawaHealth co-founder Tafadzwa Kalisto Munzwa explained that WhatsApp was chosen for the service because it is widely used in Southern Africa, and internet data can be expensive.
The app also uses a technique called retrieval-augmented generation to provide contextually relevant responses based on medical guidelines, WHO recommendations, and hospital protocols. With over 22 health workers per 10,000 people in Zimbabwe, the country faces severe shortages of healthcare professionals, particularly in rural areas.
AI tools like DawaMom can act as a triage filter, identifying high-risk cases and ensuring these women receive urgent attention, ultimately reducing the workload on limited healthcare resources.
Written by urgent.news from AllAfrica Health's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
