Applying design thinking to mothercare app for better breastfeeding practices in Riau islands

The level of exclusive breastfeeding in each region can be seen from the achievement of the exclusive rate. In Indonesia, especially Riau Islands, the achievement of the exclusive figure is still very far from what is expected, even though the prevalence of undernourished children under five in Riau Islands is the best in Indonesia, which is 13%. This is due to the existence of various obstacles faced by health workers in reducing the prevalence of malnutrition in Riau Islands. The obstacle faced in reducing the prevalence of malnutrition is that there are still many wrong parenting patterns. Parenting in this case is the treatment or way of giving the wrong food intake, including breast milk. Availability of adequate information is one of the determining factors for breastfeeding interventions for infants. Therefore, the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding through media that is close to people’s daily lives such as smartphones is considered to be a good opportunity. This study aims to develop a mobile application that can be used to improve exclusive breastfeeding interventions in the Riau Islands. This study uses a design thinking approach and utilizes gamification to increase user engagement. A total of 19 participants contributed to this study. We empathize, observe, and identify problems that exist in breastfeeding practices in Riau Islands so that we find new ideas as solutions to existing problems, namely building a Mothercare application to make it easier for breastfeeding mothers to access the information needed for better breastfeeding practices.