Effectiveness of mobile phone text message reminder on birth preparedness in a rural community in Kenya

Background: Birth preparedness is a strategy that has been found effective in preventing obstetric delays. Use of mobile technology can enable access and efficiency of health messages delivered during antenatal care. The mobile technology can be more effective in conveying health messages owing to its accessibility and enables follow up. Materials and Methods: This was a randomized control trial carried out among pregnant women attending public health antenatal clinics in Migori County. Four health facilities were randomized. Two facilities each were randomly picked for the study and control groups respectively. A total of 379 participants were recruited into the study. The study group participants received a verbal message on birth preparedness and a mobile phone text message reminder one month to their expected date of delivery. Follow up was done to both groups through their mobile phone contacts. Data was collected using an interviewer‑administered questionnaire and analyzed using Stata version 11. Proportion tests were done to compare the groups. Results: The success rate of the study was 90.5% (n = 343). Most of the participants (73%) were aged between 20 and 34 years. Majority of them were married (79.2%) and most of them had primary level of education. Protestant was the predominant religion (55.2%). Housewives and businesswomen constituted 34.2% and 27%, respectively. The respondents in the study group who were birth prepared were 74.3% (n = 136) while those in the control group were 48.1% (n = 77).Conclusion: The use of mobile phone text message reminder in addition to verbal messages is more effective. Key words: Antenatal; birth preparedness; delivery; message reminder; mobile phon

Role of Men in Birth Preparedness: A Qualitative Study of Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in Migori County, Kenya

Background & aim: Male involvement is evidently an effective strategy for enhancing maternal health outcomes. Although childbirth has traditionally targeted women, the key roles of men in decision-making and financial support cannot be ignored. This study aimed to analyze women’s perception of men in birth preparedness in Migori County, Kenya. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted on 32 pregnant women attending selected public health facilities in Migori County from January to March, 2016, using conventional content analysis. The study population was selected through purposive sampling technique. Data collection was performed by means of focus group discussions (FGD) organized in four high-volume health facilities. Discussions were recorded based on FGD guidelines. Subsequently, the recorded data were transcribed and reduced into themes. The thematic analysis of the results was reported in the form of narration. Results: The analysis of the data led to the identification of some important themes, including decision making for labor and delivery, financial support, birth companionship, house caretaking in the absence of women, and non-involvement of men in birth preparedness. Conclusion: Men play a key role in birth preparedness in terms of economic and emotional support. Although some cultures prohibit men from participating in the process of birth preparedness, there is a need to educate men in this regard.It is recommended to make more efforts to encourage men’s participation through community education, which can effectively modify prohibitive cultural practices

Kanyimangin: a new 1 million years old sit in West-Turkana, Kenya

The Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition (EMPT 1250-750 ka) is a period characterised by major environmental changes. These changes are reflected in the archaeological and faunal records which are marked by behavioural, cognitive (Acheulean specialisation/expansion) and morphological (encephalisation) innovations within the genus Homo. Unfortunately, the EMPT African hominin fossil record is scarce and poorly correlated with the archaeological record. Here we present faunal and chronometric data of a newly discovered EMPT site in West Turkana: Kanyimangin.In August 2017, the Trans-Evol Project started fieldwork in the floodplain of the Kerio River (Turkana Basin, Kenya), identifying a new palaeontological and archaeological locality. Kanyimangin is located within the Kalabata river (a tributary of the Kerio river) circular anomaly, where ca. 15-meter-deep sediments are preserved from erosion by a series of five sandstones. Although there has been almost no focussed local palaeontological and geochronological study, sediments in that area were believed to be older than 3.7 Ma. However, using combined palaeomagnetism and bio-chronological approaches, we obtain an age estimate between 0.90 and 1.19 Ma. Kanyimangin has yielded substantial lithic (n=344) and faunal (n=2155) assemblages originating partly from buried contexts. The latter comprises 212 individual specimens (NISP) distributed across 20 taxa. The faunal spectrum is composed of both aquatic and terrestrial taxa, including: Palaeoloxodon (Elephas) recki cf. recki, Panthera sp., Hyaena hyaena, Equus grevyi, Rhinocerotidae, Kolpochoerus (limnetes) heseloni, Phacocoerus sp., Hippopotamus amphibius, Syncerus caffer, Aepyceros melampus, Alcephalus buselaphus, cf. Nanger granti and a Renducini as well as the narrow-snouted Euthecodon brumpti, a broad-snouted crocodile, turtles/tortoises, snakes, fish and amphibians. Palaeomagnetic results reveal a normal polarity for the archaeology-bearing sandstone and evidence for a subsequent period of reverse polarity. Together with the presence of Palaeoloxodon recki cf. recki recovered from the same sandstone, this suggests a Matuyama age for the site after the Olduvai subchron. To date, most faunal remains were recovered from survey, which limits their biostratigraphic potential; however, the presence of well-fossilised Phacochoerus sp. and Alcephalus buselaphus specimens recovered on the surface of the archaeology-bearing sandstone equally suggests a Jaramillo (1.06–0.90 Ma) or Cobb Mountain (1.19 Ma) age for the site

Kanyimangin: the Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition in the south-west of the Turkana Basin

International audienceThe Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition (EMPT) is characterised by major environmental changes and evolutionary innovations within the genus Homo but the scarcity of the African EMPT fossil and archaeological records obscures its palaeoecological context. Here, we present archaeological and faunal evidence from a newly excavated West-Turkana EMPT site—Kanyimangin