Healthy Baby Kit

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HEALTHY BABY

social impact | neo-natal care for developing world

Holistic system to improve care for newborns and their mothers in the developing world.

Bill Gates, a guest editor for Wired magazine’s December 2013 issue focusing on lifesaving innovations, asked to design a prototype for a comprehensive solution to improve neo-natal care for the developing world.

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designed at frog, 2013

client: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

role: Social Impact

recognition: IDEA award 2014

publication: Wired magazine

Because survival chances increase if the baby is not born premature, malnourished or underweight, the solution supports the mother from the start of pregnancy through the gestation period and after the birth. Healthy Baby is a holistic toolkit that lets community health workers provide what mothers need stay healthy during pregnancy and to deliver a baby in sanitary conditions.

The kit includes nutritional and dietary supplements, as well as information about the pregnancy and medications to combat the most frequent causes of infant death: malaria, pneumonia and hypothermia.

An SMS code is provided to contact a health worker for refills and information. Gifts for the baby and a transportation ticket encourage visits to the health worker, who might be located up to 20 miles away. For the birth, Healthy Baby includes a clean sheet, gauze, a naval clip and a linen wrap to prevent hypothermia.

A cohesive design language ties together the kit’s disparate elements using color, iconography and a distinct graphic identity. To deal with illiteracy, patterns and symbols with darkening colors were used to suggest the passing of time.

Instead of isolated, spot solutions for the problems that mothers encounter in developing countries that threaten the health of their babies, Healthy Baby uses a system of progressive disclosure, SMS-based feedback, and adherence rewards to create the conditions for a well-managed pregnancy and healthy baby, from conception onwards.