From phones to frontlines: a qualitative exploration of community midwives’ and lady health workers’ perceptions on mHealth feasibility for antenatal care in rural Pakistan

Pakistan continues to face a high maternal mortality ratio, largely preventable through improved antenatal care and skilled birth attendance. Mobile Health offers an innovative approach to enhance service utilization and strengthen maternal health outcomes in low-resource settings. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of community midwives and Lady health workers regarding the feasibility of mHealth technology to improve ANC coverage in a rural district of Pakistan. A qualitative descriptive design was employed, with three focus group discussions involving 22 participants (eight Community Midwives and 14 Lady Health Workers). Data were analyzed using Creswell’s framework for qualitative data analysis to explore perceptions of mHealth feasibility. The data analysis revealed two main themes: (a) familiarity with mobile technology and mHealth, and (b) foreseeing hurdles yet being ready to jump through them. The first theme elaborated on participants’ current use of mobile phones and their past exposure to mHealth. Under the second theme, participants highlighted various challenges, including technological incompatibility, limited resources, a lack of proficiency in the English language, cultural barriers, and inadequate working relationships between CMWs and LHWs. However, despite these stated challenges, all participants were willing to implement mHealth in their future practice. The participants in the study viewed mHealth as highly beneficial, which made them eager to adopt it, despite contextual barriers. These findings underscore the need for targeted policy measures and implementation strategies such as localized application design, capacity building, and infrastructure support that can empower CMWs and LHWs and optimize mHealth integration into ANC services across underserved regions.