Noora Health and Stanford Center for Health Education’s Digital Medic Initiative began our partnership in 2018 to design and understand health behavior change within health education programs in Indian health systems. This post highlights what we’ve learned as part of our research collaboration.
In mid May of this year, when Jyothi was 9 months pregnant with her first child, India implemented one of the strictest set of lockdown measures worldwide in response to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic. Because of mobility restrictions in the state of Karnataka, Jyothi was unable to attend any doctor appointments, and when it was time to give birth, she was turned away from the government hospital where she had originally planned to deliver. They would not be conducting deliveries due to COVID-19. Adding strain to the already stressful situation, she learned that her local ASHA (community health worker) was under quarantine. Luckily, she was able to give birth at a private hospital to a healthy baby boy with no complications in early June. However, with the lockdown still in place, as a first-time mother, Jyothi was left without access to the healthcare and familial support structure on which she had previously hoped to rely… Click to read the full post