Co-designing with mothers and neonatal unit staff: use of technology to support mothers of preterm infants

There are several digital technologies which have been designed and successfully used to support mothers of preterm infants. However, none have been designed for application in the developing world context. For the existing interventions, none have involved mothers (who are the intended beneficiaries of these technologies) in the design process. This paper reports on a process that involved Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) staff and mothers in the design of technological interventions that focus on enhancing communication between mothers and staff in the NICU context. We used the co-design approach, focusing on identifying methods that ensure participants fully participate in the design process despite facing co-design dynamics such as power imbalances and conflict. Our results demonstrate the benefits of choosing an approach that focuses on building trust with stakeholders before delving into co-design process and empowering participants thus enabling them to fully participate in a design process. We argue that while working with multiple stakeholders, co-design readiness is dependent on methodological choice, stakeholders' relationship with the researcher and stakeholders' cohesion.