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

Dsane-Nsor, Sarah and Gautam, Aakash and Fuentes, Carolina and Toffah, Gideon Kwesi and Verdezoto, Nervo and Joolay, Yaseen and Densmore, Melissa (2025) Navigating Sociocultural Tensions in Prenatal Care: Opportunities for Digital Health from Diverse Stakeholders in Techiman, Ghana, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 34, 741-784, Springer Nature.

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Abstract

Pregnant women in the Global South face significant challenges due to lack of resources and informational gaps. In this paper, we take an assets-based lens to examine the experiences of pregnant women in a low-resource setting in Ghana, focusing on the role of information and technology in prenatal care. Through interviews and co-design workshops, we sought to understand the perspectives of multiple stakeholders including pregnant women, their family members, and healthcare professionals. We highlight the complexities involved in making decisions during pregnancy, including the challenges arising from the tensions between traditional healthcare practices and modern Western health services. We discuss opportunities in digital maternal health where we argue for the importance of attending to local needs and values and advocate for recognising community strengths and integrating rural care practices as valuable assets in prenatal intervention design. Our work aims to bridge some of the gaps between the theoretical understanding of digital health and the practical realities of prenatal care in low-resource settings.

Item Type:	Journal article (paginated)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	maternal and child health, information seeking, Ghana, co-design
Subjects:	Human-centered computing > Human computer interaction (HCI) Applied computing > Life and medical sciences > Health informatics Human-centered computing > Interaction design > Interaction design process and methods > Participatory design
Alternate Locations:	https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10606-025-09521-5
Date Deposited:	17 Oct 2025 06:26
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2025 06:26
URI:	https://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/id/eprint/1767

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