Ideas worth spreading

The life-saving tech helping mothers make healthy decisions

1,548,175 views | Aparna Hegde • TED Fellows: Shape Your Future

Overcrowded clinics, extensive wait times and overworked doctors are taking a devastating toll on mothers and children in India. In this eye-opening talk, urogynecologist and TED Fellow Aparna Hegde exposes the systemic gaps that lead to preventable deaths every minute -- and introduces scalable, affordable and empowering tech solutions that improve maternal and child health outcomes, upend patriarchal family dynamics and save lives.

Overcrowded clinics, extensive wait times and overworked doctors are taking a devastating toll on mothers and children in India. In this eye-opening talk, urogynecologist and TED Fellow Aparna Hegde exposes the systemic gaps that lead to preventable deaths every minute -- and introduces scalable, affordable and empowering tech solutions that improve maternal and child health outcomes, upend patriarchal family dynamics and save lives.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Learn more about ARMMAN, an India-based non-profit that leverages technology to create scalable solutions empowering mothers and enabling healthy children, and subscribe to their newsletter.

Follow Dr. Aparna Hegde on LinkedIn.

About the speaker

Maternal health innovator

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Aparna Hegde founded ARMMAN, an organization leveraging technology to improve the health of women and children in India.

The Skoll Foundation, 2020 | Article

Skoll Awardee: Aparna Hegde

The Skoll Foundation catalyzes transformational social change by investing in, connecting and championing social entrepreneurs and other social innovators who address the world's most pressing problems. Dr. Aparna Hegde and ARMMAN received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship 2020. Learn more about ARMMAN here.

Anita Makri | The Lancet, 2019 | Article

"Bridging the digital divide in health care"

While access to mobile phones has catalytic potential to improve health care access, it is critical to design with an equity lens to include the most vulnerable and marginalized.

Maternal Child Survival Program, 2017 | Article

"Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) Lessons Learned Brief"

ARMMAN's mMitra program scaled with the support of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Health, a global consortium. It leveraged mobile technology towards behavior change communication to improve maternal and child health outcomes.

Ela R. Bhatt | Oxford University Press, 2005 | Book

We Are Poor but So Many: The Story of Self-Employed Women in India (South Asia Series)

Ela R. Bhatt is a trailblazing cooperative organizer, activist and the founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a trade union of self-employed women. This book is her inspiring account of the vision, rise and success of SEWA and an insight into the lives of rural and urban women in India.

Bunker Roy, TEDGlobal 2011 | Watch

"Learning from a barefoot movement"

Bunker Roy is the founder of Barefoot College, an organization which helps members of rural communities, especially women, become self-sufficient. His visionary work demonstrates the power and impact of the grassroots community movement.

Priya Shetty | The Lancet, 2011 | Article

"Rani and Abhay Bang -- pioneers of health care in rural India"

Dr. Abhay Bang and Rani Bang are leaders in the field of community health in India. Honored by The Lancet as "the pioneers of health care in rural India." their work on home-based newborn care has shaped national policy.

Learn more

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Learn more about ARMMAN, an India-based non-profit that leverages technology to create scalable solutions empowering mothers and enabling healthy children, and subscribe to their newsletter.

Follow Dr. Aparna Hegde on LinkedIn.