Navigating Sociocultural Tensions in Prenatal Care: Opportunities for Digital Health from Diverse Stakeholders in Techiman, Ghana

Abstract

Pregnant women in the Global South face significant challenges due to lack ofresources and informational gaps. In this paper, we take an assets-based lens toexamine the experiences of pregnant women in a low-resource setting in Ghana,focusing on the role of information and technology in prenatal care. Throughinterviews and co-design workshops, we illuminate the perspectives of multiplestakeholders including pregnant women, their family members, and health pro-fessionals. We highlight the complexities involved in making decisions duringpregnancy including the challenges arising from the tension between traditionalhealthcare practices and modern Western health services. We discuss opportuni-ties in digital maternal health where we argue for the importance of attendingto local needs and values and advocate for recognizing community strengths andintegrating rural care practices as valuable assets in prenatal intervention design.Our work aims to bridge some of the gaps between the theoretical understand-ing of digital health and the practical realities of prenatal care in low-resource settings.