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Introduction Maternal cardiac disease is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in East Africa. In Uganda, limited access to dedicated cardiology services and insufficient specialised training in cardiac screening among maternal healthcare providers exacerbate diagnostic delays. This collaborative project between Barts Heart Centre (BHC) and Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) aimed to train clinicians at Kawempe National Referral Hospital (KNRH) in Kampala to use handheld echocardiography for rapid bedside screening and referral of pregnant women with suspected cardiac conditions.Methods The project was implemented over three days at KNRH and targeted 40 clinicians, mainly comprising of obstetricians and midwives. The first day included lectures on foundational echocardiography principles: obtaining standard transthoracic views and identifying pathological markers, particularly in rheumatic heart disease (RHD) and cardiomyopathy. This was followed by two days of hands-on scanning practice using GE Vscan Air SL handheld devices, selected primarily for their beginner-friendly features such as AI-assisted image optimisation. Pre- and post-training questionnaires assessed changes in participant competence and confidence in pathology recognition, skill acquisition and referral decision-making.Results Pre-training, most participants had limited cardiac training: only 32.5% reported formal education in maternal cardiac conditions, and only 17.5% had prior echocardiography experience. Post-training, 69.2% reported high confidence in identifying cardiac ‘red flags’ and 61.6% reported high confidence in referral decisions. Confidence in technical echocardiography skills was more modest, with 53.8% achieving moderate confidence. Rheumatic heart disease remained the area of lowest confidence with only 7.7% reporting high confidence. In contrast, 69.3% felt at least moderately confident in screening for cardiomyopathy. While focused training is needed for interpreting complex findings, handheld echocardiography equips frontline clinicians to recognise key cardiac abnormalities and appropriately triage patients for timely specialist cardiac referral, directly contributing to safer patient management.Conclusion This pilot programme demonstrates that handheld echocardiography can be used as a feasible and valuable screening tool by midwives and obstetricians to detect cardiac conditions in resource-limited maternal health settings. However, longitudinal mentorship and supervised support are essential to develop proficiency and accuracy in complex cases. Future plans include the development of online resources, pathology-specific protocols, and a remote mentorship programme to support ongoing skill development. This initiative shows promise in strengthening local expertise in maternal cardiac screening and improving maternal outcomes, with potential for broader implementation in other resource-constrained healthcare environments in low-income countries.