DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A WEB BASED MATERNITY INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction

Maternity care refers to the health services provided to women, babies, and families throughout the whole pregnancy, during labour and birth, and after birth for up to six weeks. It can include monitoring the health and well-being of the mother and baby, health education, and assistance during labour and birth (Futurelearn, 2022). Maternity Care is a type of preventive healthcare. It is provided in the form of medical checkups, consisting of recommendations on managing a healthy lifestyle and the provision of medical information such as maternal physiological changes in pregnancy, biological changes, and prenatal nutrition including prenatal vitamins, which prevents potential health problems throughout the course of the pregnancy and promotes the mother and child's health alike. The availability of routine prenatal care, including prenatal screening and diagnosis, has played a part in reducing the frequency of maternal death, miscarriages, birth defects, low birth weight, neonatal infections and other preventable health problems (Wikipedia, 2021b).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Computer is a machine that speed up any work giving to it in a second, computer is a garbage in, garbage out machine (i.e.) it accepts input (data) and process them to produce the anticipate out puts. It could be also seen as an electronic device which is capable of receiving and processing data automatically which is later turned out as information according to pre-determined instruction or program, it is a machine that works under certain stored software by the manufacturers automatically accepting, processing, storing and retrieving data that are needed for a particular purpose. The processing may involve retrieving the design & implementation of Web Based Maternity Information System information, sorting, arithmetic calculations and other kinds of manipulations. Computer can display information electronically, print it or produce it in other form.

A computerized Maternity education system has been shown to be an effective strategy for improving maternal stress and self-efficacy during pregnancy, with the implementation of the Maternity system, it will provide opportunities for pregnant women to develop competence and obtain knowledge, skills, and social support from health care providers. Researchers have suggested that Maternity education should meet pregnant women’s needs by providing strategies to cope with common pregnancy-related stressors. Pregnant women are interested in participating in a web based or internet-based Maternity education or Maternity Care. Previous research has reported that over 90% of pregnant women are interested in using the internet or smartphones to search for pregnancy-related information that affects their decision making. The current research aim is to design and implement an effective computerized web-based Maternity education system on maternal stress and other related health issues during pregnancy.

An information system is needed to provide basic data for any organization, which are required for decision making, coordinating and controlling of records, therefore it is of great importance that the discovery of an adequate means of making the information available to everyone concerned, this is because for decision to be made efficiently and timely the information must be consistent, up-to-date, accurate and reliable (just-in-time) to affect the operation for which it is being provided. Pregnancy can be a stressful event for many women. Women experience stress during pregnancy due to concerns about maternal-fetal safety, competence in the maternal role, physical changes, anxiety of labor and birth, social relationships, and financial issues. Maternal age, parity, pregnancy history, and maternal health status all could affect maternal stress perception. The first and second trimesters have been reported as the most stressful periods for pregnant women, and the stress in early pregnancy could last through late pregnancy month.

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1.3 Statement of the Problem

The major function of the Maternity unit is to cater for expectance mothers and provide necessary advice for the well-being of the mother and yet to be born child until delivery date, which is why the pregnant mother visits the unit, which is a little difficult for heavy mothers to always visit the hospital regularly to seek medical advisers and checkup. Investigation revealed the specific challenges encountered that led to the execution of the research work include the following;

1. Care providers waste precious time searching and browsing for unscheduled Maternity patient record to collect all information pertinent to the actual situation,
2. Difficulty in accessing certain Maternity patient file location,
3. The manual system of Maternity appointment scheduling of patient is usually stressful and may result to an incomplete daily scheduling of appointment with maternity patients, and
4. Inaccuracies in Maternity patient’s medical record keeping due to human errors.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to Design and Implement a Web Based Maternity Information System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will:

1. Provide information availability to maternity patients and to doctors about expectance mothers’ maternity care;
2. Provide and enhance access to information about maternity patients i.e. quick information retrieval and secured storage;
3. Provide a computerized maternity mother registration in the Hospital;
4. Provide the best way for information processing retrieval and secured storage for future purpose; and
5. Provide an up-to-date, real-time, and reliable and desire information for the management, patients seeking advice;

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1.5 Significance of Study

This system when completed and implemented it will help provide adequate information about Maternity patient’s medical record and facilitates quick medical appointment scheduling. This project will be beneficial to individuals such as: pregnant women, pharmacist and doctors, nurses, care providers by providing accurate and complete information about Maternity patient’s medical record thereby saving patient time during Maternity medical checkup. Besides, the study will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.

This study will aid the women understand the need for C/S especially when a vaginal delivery seem threatening to their health and that of their fetus. It will also help in debunking their various belief and taboo about the procedure which has been one of the reasons why they have been levistant to approve of it so that the rate of maternal and fetal mortality will be reduced to the bearest minimum. This research work is to design and implement an Maternity information system that will help in timely and useful information processing that can be accessible over the internet always.

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1.6 Scope of the Study

The study focuses on the Design and Implementation of a Web Based Maternity Information System which covers the provision of information related to the Maternity unit of the department of a hospital in Ibezim Clinc Enugu.

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1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

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1.8 Definition of Terms

Maternity Care: It refers to the health services provided to women, babies, and families throughout the whole pregnancy, during labour and birth, and after birth for up to six weeks (Futurelearn, 2022).

Medication: A medication is a substance that is taken in to or placed on the body that does one of the following things: most medications are used to cure disease or condition. (For example, antibiotics are given to cure an infection. Medications are also given to treat a medical condition).

Prescription: A prescription is a health-care program implemented by a physician or other qualified health care practitioner in the form of instructions that govern the plan of care for an individual patient.

Symptom: A symptom is a departure from normal function or feeling which is apparent to a patient, reflecting the presence of an unusual state or of a disease.