In Guatemala, maternal healthcare delivery in rural areas is severely constrained by limited staffing, high turnover, and geographic isolation. The national average of 12.5 healthcare workers per 10,000 people—well below the WHO standard of 44.5—compounds the challenge of delivering routine antenatal care.
During the BabyChecker webinar, Dr. Ignacio Prieto Egido, Associate Professor at Rey Juan Carlos University and Director of the EHAS Foundation, shared insights from a pilot initiative in rural Guatemala. EHAS has long focused on scaling public health solutions in low-resource environments. Their work centers on integrating sustainable technologies into existing healthcare systems through close collaboration with government and local partners.
From strategy to implementation
Since 2012, EHAS has worked to improve antenatal care through its “Healthy Pregnancy” initiative—equipping nurses with diagnostic tools and training to identify maternal risk factors. However, despite progress, access remained limited due to staffing gaps and the mobility of health professionals.
“The problem is not only the device, but who’s going to use it,” explained Prieto Egido. “We found high staff turnover in rural areas, and the nurses don’t always work directly in the community—they visit periodically. Instead, nursing assistants are there every day.”
To address this, EHAS began piloting BabyChecker in 2024, deploying the tool among nine community-based nursing assistants in the Huehuetenango department. “We were able to do more than 500 scans with nine different nursing assistants, and we were able to identify different risks in this sample,” he reported. “It has great acceptance among nurses, among nurse assistants, and among the women.”
Watch the full BabyChecker webinar to learn more about EHAS’ pilot in Guatemala and hear from additional field experts.
A scalable opportunity
One of the pilot’s key findings was BabyChecker’s potential for widespread deployment. Since every rural community in Guatemala has a nursing assistant, scaling the use of BabyChecker could dramatically expand prenatal screening coverage.
“Most of the nurse assistants were able to perform good-quality scans with BabyChecker. Some still need to improve, which shows that follow-up is very important—even when you’re using a very easy-to-use technology.”
EHAS aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of BabyChecker and to integrate it into national protocols for perinatal care. This effort supports their broader mission of reducing maternal mortality through accessible, technology-enabled solutions. “We would like to scale with more BabyCheckers and to more nurse assistants—to increase coverage and decrease maternal mortality in Guatemala, which is still higher than the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals.”