10 Noted Neonatal and Maternal Healthcare Social Enterprises in India
According to UNICEF India, India accounts for about a quarter of neonatal death globally which means 630,000 babies die within the first four weeks of life. India has set-up India Newborn Action Plan (INAP), where UNICEF is a key partner, to reduce the number of neonatal death rate and stillborn rate to a single digit by 2030. Maternal healthcare is another area where India’s performance is very poor. Though, there has been a decrease in the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), it has slid down from 212 in 2007 to 167 in 2013. But this rate is not enough to reach the Millennium Development Goal target i.e., MMR to 103.
Some causes of neonatal and maternal deaths in India (as concluded from UNICEF India):
- Improper Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities
- Lack of knowledge about proper child health-care practices
- Preference of boy child over girl child; gender discrimination
- Lack of proper diet for the mother, health conditions of the mother
- Preventable neonatal diseases and infections like pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and measles
- Lack of accessibility, affordability and availability of neonatal health-care resources
- Teenage pregnancy in rural India
Impactpreneurs identifies few of the social enterprises that are working tirelessly to improve the quality of neonatal and maternal care in India and rest of the world.
- Embrace Innovations
Product/Service: Embrace Innovations has designed affordable products for infants. Flagship products of Embrace Innovations are Little Lotus, Embrace Care and Embrace Nest. Little Lotus offers baby swaddles, sleeping bags and blankets which help in maintaining the ideal temperature for the newbies. Embrace Care and Embrace Nest are recommended by doctors as the former operates without the use of electricity and latter doesn’t require constant electricity support. Hence, these products are an effort to reduce the neonatal diseases.
Amazing Factor: Embrace Innovations started out as a class project at Stanford University and since then has gone onto reach 200,000 babies across 22 countries. Its has won reputed awards like SCHWAB Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, TED Fellows and The Economist Social Innovation Award 2013.
2. Bempu
Product/Service: Bempu has come up with Bempu Bracelet which is tied on the wrist of the baby. This bracelet tracks the temperature of the baby which can be monitored by the mother. Bempu’s prime motto is to end neonatal death rate caused by hypothermia (a state where body temperature reduces below 36.5-degree Celsius).
Amazing Factor: Currently, Bempu has reached 10,000+ newborns in 26 countries. It is being prescribed by 100+ hospitals.
3. AVI Healthcare Pvt Ltd
Product/Service: AVI Healthcare is organizing medical equipment for infants glocally (globally + locally). AVI brings cutting-edge technology for the infants like infant warmers, neonatal jaundice (Phototherapy Unit, Transcutaneous Jaundice Detector), neonatal transport, neonatal resuscitation, neonatal monitors, ventilator and other neonatal products. The flagship product, TransNano Transport Incubator comes in five different models which is an award-winning innovative product- the product varies on the basis of weight, space and power.
Amazing Factor: TransNano Transport Incubator of AVI Healthcare is listed among the top 25 innovative products in India. The technology has been awarded by the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Innovation Foundation.
4. Ayzh
Product/Service: Ayzh supplies affordable kits for mothers and children in rural areas which are aimed to reduce maternal and neonatal death rates. Ayzh has developed JANMA, a toolkit based on the recommendations of WHO, to ensure safe and sterile delivery conditions upon usage of the tools in the kit during delivery. SHISHU is a new-born kit which ensures good health of babies. Ayzh also offers Janani which is a kit for post-partrum mother care. The organization also trains rural women to manufacture these kits.
Amazing Factor: Ayzh has improved the health outcomes for 1.5+million women and children, sold 300,000+ products and has trained 6,000+ healthcare workers across the globe.
5. CARE India
Product/Service: CARE India collaborates with state and central government and other organizations to provide the best quality maternal and neonatal healthcare for the marginalized communities. Join My Village Maternal and Neonatal Health initiative started by CARE India makes communities aware of sexual and health issues, family planning, women’s care, child care and domestic issues. CARE India also works on other projects like Axshya which is to fight tuberculosis in slum areas.
Amazing Factor: 2,792 children between the age-group 0–5 have been provided with nutritional diet under Madhya Pradesh Nutrition Project.
6. vRemind
Product/Service: vRemind reminds parents about the vaccination till their child is of age 5. Vaccination is a right of every child. vRemind also creates awareness about the vaccination in the society. vRemind is a mobile application which sends reminder to parents twice- once seven days prior to the vaccination and the second, one day prior via SMS. vRemind also offers customized solutions like sending vaccination reminder from the hospital parents are consulting to.
Amazing Factor: vRemind has over 10,000+ subscribers and has sent over 31,000+ SMS alerts.
7. Asha India
Product/Service: Asha provides better healthcare services in slum areas. Asha trains women in slums for 6 months so that they can provide first aid in their community when it comes to pregnant women, elderly, children under 5 and TB patients. They are called Community Healthcare Volunteers (CHVs). Over years ASHA has reduced maternal and neonatal death rates.
Amazing Factor: ASHA has served 600,000 people in more than 71 slums of Delhi.
8. LifeSpring Maternity Hospitals
Product/Service: LifeSpring Hospitals provides maternal healthcare to the mothers from low-income (INR 3000-INR 7000) family. It is a chain of hospitals with 25 beds to improve maternal health services. LifeSpring Hospitals has served 100000+ patients till now.
Amazing Factor: UNDP and UN Global Compact had initiated Business Call to Action to reduce poverty, hunger and maternal and neonatal deaths by 2015 wherein LifeSpring was the first chain of healthcare provider to be a part of it.
9. Child Survival India
Product/Service: Child Survival India creates awareness about the maternal and child health issues, immunization, institutional delivery, open defecation among the communities. They also train adolescents groups and young leaders through workshops about these issues so that they later spread the information about these issues.
Amazing Factor: 2593+ pregnant women and 453+ women postnatal care were reached by Child Survival India.
10. Vaccine Box
Product/Service: Vaccine Box helps parents keep track of child’s development. It offers personalized vaccination chart through which parents are reminded about the vaccination, also, parents can compare the vaccine brands before choosing one.
Amazing Factor: Vaccine Box not only guides parents during the growth period of the baby but also guides them about pregnancy and parenting.
