For expectant mothers, pregnancy should be a time of anticipation, preparation and enjoyment. During the process of pre-natal, birth and post-natal care, most mothers require numerous visits with different maternity healthcare professionals, including midwives, primary care professionals, and specialists. Between these healthcare professionals and the expectant mother, thousands of elements of information need to be tracked and shared.
These demands of pregnancy can be potentially stressful for the expectant mother, but cloud-based technology can help alleviate some of the work. That’s why Omda developed the iPana Maternity Card.
The Omda iPana Maternity Card is a modern, digital service for managing all of the information during the maternity care process. It enables expectant mothers, hospitals, and maternity clinics to electronically collect, store and share important medical information at every stage of pregnancy and beyond.
– Pregnancy and birth are a special time in expectant parents’ lives, and these milestones require specialised tools focused on bringing wellbeing, comfort, and safety, said Minna Hernandez, Registered Nurse, Midwife, and Omda iPana Product Manager. – The Omda iPana Maternity Card can help expectant mothers take control of their pre-natal and post-natal health, delivering a positive experience without compromising the quality of care.
Beyond improving communication and information sharing, the cloud-based maternity card can also act as a digital memory book for parents. It allows those who are expecting to share important updates with family and friends on social media, and to connect with midwives and other healthcare professionals to ask questions from home.
Ida’s Story
Ida Pirttijärvi lives in a small village in the northern part of Lapland, Finland, close to the Norwegian border. The nearest maternity clinic is more than 100 km from her home, and the nearest maternity hospital is 400 km away, in Rovaniemi. Ida has to take care of her son as well as the family’s reindeers during herding season, so she prefers to spend as little time as possible away from home during her pregnancy.
Like many pregnant women living in remote areas, Ida has to plan for her baby’s birth and connect with her healthcare team to ensure they have essential information about any health changes during her pregnancy.
Using Omda’s iPana Maternity Card, she records her blood pressure daily and inputs the data into the app. Her maternity health card is automatically updated with the information, and it is immediately available to all healthcare professionals that are relevant to her pregnancy.
In addition to blood pressure, Ida can record other vital health measurements at home and share them with their maternity clinic or hospital. The electronic maternity card also has web-based information forms and questionnaires that she can complete before any appointments, reducing her time away from home.
The Omda iPana Maternity Card connects Ida and her maternity healthcare team efficiently and effectively, delivering quality care without the burden of extra travel and appointments.
“I feel that I have been well taken care of,” said Ida.
Supporting Maternity Care Professionals
Today, the Omda iPana Maternity Card is the leading electronic pregnancy record in Finland, helping deliver about 16,000 healthy Finnish babies each year, more than a third of all pregnancies in the country
Dr. Katja Hämeenoja is the Clinical Director at Lapin Sairaanhoitopiirin Ky in Rovaniemi Area, Finland. Her team uses the Omda iPana Maternity hospital system, as well as the electronic maternity card for expectant mothers who are planning to give birth at that hospital.
– Eliminating paper forms was a huge advancement for our department. Before using Omda’s Maternity solutions, we had 16 different forms that needed be completed throughout the pregnancy process, said Dr. Hämeenoja. – Midwives had to do a lot of manual writing; now, information on the mother’s health history is accessible to everyone at any time, without duplicate data entry.
– For expectant mothers, they can now have check-ups in their community with their local doctors and nurses, without having to travel to the hospital, said Dr. Hämeenoja. – All of the vital information is electronic, so specialists can review the information and give advice to the local healthcare provider without needing to transport the mother here.
Having a seamless information flow between healthcare professionals and the expectant mother increases the quality and safety of care, allowing them to quickly identify any health issues or risks for complications during pregnancy or birth.
Importantly, expectant mothers receive the right level of care and support, keeping healthy pregnant women at home until it is time to give birth. High-risk pregnancies can be detected early on instead of later in pregnancy, which means more mothers and babies are referred to the right level of care much sooner.
– It gives the expectant mother reassurance that everything is going well, said Dr. Hämeenoja.
– The at-home measurements are important, so that pregnant women can call the nurse if they have questions or want someone to look at their blood pressure scores, allowing them to feel cared for and safe while they are at home.
Revolutionising Maternity Care
Many healthcare organisations are already using cloud-based services for acute and other forms of care. Now, specialised maternity solutions like the Omda iPana Maternity Card have the potential to revolutionise how we care for women during pregnancy.
Across the Nordics, governments have expressed interest in implementing an electronic maternity card to improve the management of health information during pregnancy. This is especially important for women with high-risk pregnancies and births, or those in rural areas where access to specialists can be limited.
– Pregnancy and childbirth are states of constant change, which require real-time monitoring and updating of health data, said Hernandez. – During this process, information can quickly become fragmented between various providers, especially when using paper-based forms and maternity cards.
Using a connected, electronic maternity card can enhance the pre-natal, birth and post-natal process for pregnant women, while providing the real-time and accurate information that their healthcare professionals need to make decisions.
– One of the great benefits of having a cloud-based system is the ability to improve patient access to health services and information, empowering expectant mothers in the management of their pregnancy health, said Hernandez. – At the same time, we can continue to provide the high quality of care and support they are used to from their healthcare professionals.
