Participants
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COMPLICATIONS
All hospitals, health centres and health posts in the five districts were selected for the study and assigned by simple random allocation to either the smartphone intervention or the control group. Health facilities with five or more deliveries in 2012 were eligible for inclusion. The study population were the midwives and health extension workers (HEWs) attending deliveries at health facilities eligible for randomization and who provided individual informed consent for participation. Health staff who were retired or were deployed to another health facility during the study period were excluded. One health facility was excluded as it had neither a midwife nor a HEW employed. In Ethiopia ‘health extension workers’ are the frontline workers, usually working in the most remote and rural areas. Their level of education is minimum one year in general health care including basic maternal health. They are not categorized as “skilled birth attendants”, though they are often the only persons available to manage complications in the remote places they work. All participants were assured confidentiality and that any participation was voluntary. Person-related information like name and place of employment which could violate anonymity of the participants, was kept strictly apart from the data collection forms under double lock.