Healthy Crossroads in Pregnancy Care (HCPC) - A Scoping and Participatory Design Study of the Potential for ICTs to Improve Maternal Health in India

该伙伴关系旨在共同探讨信息和通信技术（ICT）在加强和塑造（个人和社区）印度孕期护理社会文化实践方面可能发挥的作用。产妇保健是印度最重要的公共卫生挑战之一。贫血和妊娠糖尿病等其他疾病和并发症使孕妇的自我护理管理更具挑战性，特别是在印度的城市贫民窟和农村地区。此外，孕产妇和生殖保健服务利用率低，加上社会文化和经济不平等加剧，已经危及孕妇的健康，特别是在印度社会文化系统的较低层次。例如，孕妇往往发现自己处于从属地位，而文化上的日常习俗（例如，由于家庭结构和传统（首先为丈夫提供食物）对妇女的自主权、分娩过程和产后时期提出了挑战，同时还从事可能对母亲和婴儿都有害的不健康做法。探索围绕怀孕的社会文化习俗和孕妇的日常经历，可以提供机会，通过技术设计提高孕妇的自主权、能动性、自我效能和自我反思的做法，因此，这一伙伴关系旨在探索日常怀孕护理的复杂性，并为设计技术干预措施提供机会和关注，以支持和重塑孕产之旅，考虑到孕妇在家庭内外的自主权和代理权，以改善其健康和福祉。我们汇集了一个多学科，跨文化和跨地域的研究人员，技术设计师，公共和社区卫生工作者以及基层公民组织，以探索信息和通信技术提供的机会，以帮助识别，促进和/或限制（不）健康的做法和生活方式行为对孕妇，新生儿和社区健康的影响。为了实现我们的项目目标，我们将在9个月的时间内（2018年3月至11月），进行两个阶段的共同调查研究（民族志工作和共同设计工作），并作为一个团队在印度举行3次范围界定，网络和传播研讨会：在项目开始时，在4个月的民族志工作之后，以及在项目结束时。该伙伴关系将进一步了解围绕孕期护理的（非）健康做法，并探索和创建一系列设计探索和创新想法和经验，以增强、加强和促进孕妇、其家庭和社区积极参与孕产妇护理。民族志工作的见解和产生的设计理念和原型将与参与者，他们的社区和公众分享。我们将开展一项更大规模的研究，以进一步探索在印度全国范围内实施所产生的想法。该项目将为更多的进一步合作提供基础，并通过分享各领域的最佳做法和方法加强我们的个人做法。

This partnership aims to co-inquire what roles Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) might play in enhancing and shaping (individual and community-based) socio-cultural practices around pregnancy care in India. Maternal health is one of the foremost public health challenges in India. Additional disorders and complications such as anaemia and gestational diabetes makes the self-care management of pregnant women more challenging in particular in urban slums and rural areas in India. In addition, the low utilization of maternal and reproductive healthcare services together with the exacerbating socio-cultural and economic inequalities have jeopardised pregnant women's health especially at the lower level of the socio-cultural system in India. For instance, pregnant women often find themselves in subordinate positions, and cultural everyday practices (e.g., serving the husband food first), family structures and traditions challenges women's autonomy, the delivery process and and the postnatal period, whilst engaging in unhealthy practices that can potentially be harmful to both the mother and the baby. Exploring the socio-cultural practices around pregnancy and the everyday experiences of pregnant women can provide opportunities to enhance pregnant women's autonomy, agency, self-efficacy and self-reflective practices through technology design.As such, this partnership aims to explore the complexities of everyday pregnancy care and scope opportunities and concerns for the design of technological interventions that can support and reshape the maternity journey, accounting for the autonomy and agency of pregnant women within and beyond households, to improve their health and wellbeing. We have brought together a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural, and cross-geographical group of researchers, technology designers, public & community health workers, and grassroots citizens' organisations to explore the opportunities afforded by ICTs to help identify, promote and/or restrict the consequences of (un)healthy practices and lifestyle behaviors in the health of pregnant women, the newborns, and the community. To meet our project's aim, we will, over a period of nine months (between March and November 2018), engage in 2 stages of co-inquiring studies (ethnographic work and co-design work), and meet as a team to hold 3 scoping, networking and dissemination workshops in India: at the beginning of the project, after 4 months of the ethnographic work, and at the end of the project. The partnership will gain further understanding of (un)healthy practices around pregnancy care, as well as explore and create a collection of design probes and innovative ideas and experiences to empower, enhance and promote the active and positive participation of pregnant women, their families and communities in maternal care. The insights from the ethnographic work and the generated design ideas and prototypes will be shared with the participants, their communities and the public in general. We will develop a larger research study to further explore the implementation of the generated ideas on national scale across India. The project will provide the basis for additional further collaborations and strengthen our individual practices through sharing best practice and methods across fields.