Rah e Maa (Path of a Mother)

Rah-e-maa offers a speech-based service that connects expectant fathers to each other and to doctors over a simple phone call. The service provides an opportunity for users to share stories and learn from each others' experiences while keeping myths and common misconceptions in check. It also provides an avenue for fathers to connect with doctors and ask them questions from the comfort of their home. The service is free for all callers, and is targeted towards low-income, low-literate users whose access to professional healthcare services is limited logistically and financially. 

The expectant fathers can ask questions and get answers from doctors, listen to publicly-posted questions and (doctors’) answers, and share relevant personal stories with peers as pregnancy and childbirth remain taboo topics among men in Pakistan where maternal and child health indicators remain exceptionally poor. Moreover, Traditional maternal health information services for mothers often fail to achieve desired outcomes as women are not the primary decision makers in most Pakistani households. Therefore, the aim of services like Rah-e-Maa and Super Abu is to drive down adverse birth outcomes by spreading reliable maternal health information in Pakistan, where in a patriarchal context, men are the main decision-makers in their families and also have more access to technology 

• Usage and Feedback from a 3-Week Launch of a Maternal Health Line for Men in Pakistan

• How to Advertise a Speech-Based Service to Offline Populations: A Case Study from Pakistan

• Patriarchy, maternal health and spiritual healing: Designing maternal health interventions in Pakistan