MotherHeat Alert, an early warning system mobile app

We are developing the MotherHeat Alert app, which will warn pregnant and postpartum women and maternity care health workers about rising heat in their area and advise them on how to stay safe. 

Screenshots from the MotherHeat Alert app

With the MotherHeat Alert app, we hope that one day pregnant and postpartum women and maternity care health workers can receive messages on their phone about heat risks, including recommendations on how to protect themselves as well as their infants and children. 

Our team, who are currently working to develop and test the app, include researchers at Lund University and Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Wits RHI in South Africa, CeSHHAR in Zimbabwe, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Rural Mt Darwin, Zimbabwe – Ahead of implementing the MotherHeat early warning system in Zimbabwe, women and stakeholders discuss photographs taken by pregnant women to represent their experiences with heat, as part of the app co-design process to develop heat adaptation messages for pregnant and postpartum women. Photo: Isabelle Lange.


To ensure the app truly meets the needs of those it is designed for, the HIGH Horizons project has been engaging with groups of pregnant women, mothers, and health workers in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Sweden, listening as they describe their experiences of coping with extreme heat risk.

The researchers are also testing the app at study sites in the three countries. With the insight of these women and health workers, the researchers hope to create an app that is easy to use, relevant, and possibly lifesaving.
 

Rural access

For those in rural Zimbabwe who do not have a mobile phone or cannot read, community health workers will communicate MotherHeat Alert messages in person.

App co-designers and developers

TNO The Netherlands is subcontracted by the University of Lund, one of the HIGH Horizons partners, to co-design and develop the smartphone application MotherHeat Alert.

Resources

Blog: Celebrating closing the early warning gap together on World Meteorological Day 

Related publications

  • Heil CS, Ioannou LG, Alce G, Frennert S, Gao C, HIGH Horizons Study Group. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Heat Thresholds for Maternal Health and Birth Outcomes. To be submitted.