Author's response to reviews Title:Use of mobile phone consultations during home visits by Community Health Workers for maternal and newborn care: community experiences from Masindi and Kiryandongo districts, Uganda Authors:

Reviewer (Rajendra Karkee) This article is well written but discusses the broad areas in maternal and newborn care practices, not only improving communication method but about perceived benefits of interventions. In that sense, title should be modified. We have modified the title to reflect use of mobile technology by VHTs to support pregnant women and newborns in lines 1-2 " Use of mobile phone consultations during home visits by Community Health Workers for maternal and newborn care: community experiences from Masindi and Kiryandongo districts, Uganda " Since there are many perceptions with broad topics, the aims should be specifically formulated so that readers can follow easily Multiple perceptions have been addressed in line 101 where we indicate perceptions are obtained from the perspectives of women, VHTs and health workers (Line 32): Since the authors use 'Village Health Teams', I suggest to explain it in brackets and use this term consistently later. We have followed advice provided by the reviewer and defined the term VHT in the abstract and later used VHT to refer to Community Health Workers in the context of this manuscript. This is addressed in line 31-32 of the abstract: Background Home visits by Community Health Workers [In Uganda Community Health Workers are given the collective term of Village Health Teams (VHTs). Hereafter referred to as VHTs] is recommended to improve maternal and newborn care. Also, in the main body of the manuscript line 95-96 and reads: In the Ugandan context CHWs are given the collective name of Village Health Teams (VHTs). In the context of this article we will refer to CHWs as VHTs. The national Health policy in Uganda recognizes VHTs as constituent part of the health care system. Line 45: what do the authors mean by positive attitudinal change regarding maternal and newborn care? By attitudinal change we mean that women and VHTs expressed views contrary to previously held views about maternal and newborn care; they could explain the benefits of recommended maternal and newborn care practices. We have rephrased this sentence to give it clarity. The new sentence in the abstract line 44-45 reads Women, VHTs and professional health workers acknowledged that the intervention induced attitudinal change among women and VHTs towards adapting recommended maternal and newborn care practices. Line 96: Please make clear " who's perceived maternal and newborn benefits have been explored? " In data collection and analysis sections, there are several …