Application of mobile health to improve self-care among pregnant women: A literature review

The advent of Information and Communication Technology(ICT) in the area of healthcare has led to introduction of novel services named Mobile Health(MHealth) while focuses on use of smart, mobile technologies in providing medical and healthcare services with high accessibility and low cost regardless of time or place. Mhealth has significantly affected various areas of healthcare including health of pregnant women and newborns. The aim of the current study is to investigate the advantages of using mhealth for self-care among pregnant women. This review is done using various scientific databases including Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar to retrieve related literature. Investigating the current literature showed that the majority of applications for this technology focused on weight control for pregnant women, education and information regarding pre and postnatal care, reminders, evaluation of services and need assessment. Given the widespread use of smartphones among people, ease of access and use as well as portability of this technology, it is possible to use mhealth to improve healthcare services in various medical fields including healthcare during pregnancy. Use of smart, mobile tools in proving healthcare services for women, especially during pregnancy, can improve service speed, provide suitable and cost-effective solutions and reduce occurrence of malpractice. Pregnant women require sufficient media and health literacy in order to use mhealth services. They also need to be familiar with novel technologies and receive constant and suitable education.