In contrast with other wealthy countries, the U.S. lags on the subject of maternal well being outcomes. Maternal mortality charges have generally worsened since 1987, reaching 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020. The mortality fee for Black girls was practically thrice greater than the speed for white girls.
Melissa Hanna, CEO and cofounder of maternal well being startup Mahmee, sat down with MobiHealthNews to debate how their platform goals to enhance being pregnant and postpartum care, the corporate’s recent $9.2 million Series A raise and the rising digital maternal well being panorama. This interview was edited for readability and size.
MobiHealthNews: Are you able to inform me a bit about how Mahmee works from the affected person perspective?
Melissa Hanna: New and anticipating mother and father can be a part of Mahmee free of charge. And the core side of that have for anybody who’s becoming a member of contains the unified well being file for mother and child. So, they’re capable of hyperlink collectively well being file data from the mom’s medical historical past and being pregnant historical past to the childbirth expertise, and child’s beginning story and first yr of life. So, we actually give attention to conception by means of the child’s first yr of life and documenting all the points of care and well being that occurred throughout that point.
One other a part of that’s entry to the nationwide Mahmee community of suppliers which can be utilizing our software program throughout the nation. [They] are primarily community-based beginning and toddler care professionals. So these are of us which may be midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, dwelling visiting nurses or dwelling well being suppliers, nutritionists, therapists, social employees. They’re all sorts of community-based professionals that sufferers are more likely to interface with sooner or later throughout their maternity expertise however are sometimes not thought-about core members of the affected person’s care staff the best way that OB-GYNs and pediatricians are.
And Mahmee’s attempting to alter that. We’re attempting to make it simpler for folks to combine these group care professionals into their common course of care since we all know that it is actually these community-based professionals which have the best likelihood for offering high-touch preventative care.
The ultimate piece is the power to trace vitals and observe psychological well being and different key points of the being pregnant and postpartum journey that may be early indicators of problems and dangers. So, actually having the ability to maintain all that in a single place – handle your care staff, handle your well being, personal your well being file for you and your child – are the three items of that puzzle.
MHN: So, there are clearly problems with traditional maternal healthcare within the U.S. What do you assume are a number of the greatest points that you just’re hoping Mahmee will assist repair?
Hanna: The primary may be very excessive fragmentation. This can be a very fragmented market, the place there’s simply lots of totally different varieties of pros typically working in quite a lot of scientific and outpatient settings that present quite a lot of totally different providers to new and anticipating mother and father. And in lots of circumstances, they do not have the digital instruments and information sharing capability to work collectively and collaborate on that care. So, there’s simply lots of totally different items of a puzzle unfold out, and the affected person turns into accountable for linking every little thing collectively and having the burden of re-sharing their story with each new one who joins their care staff.
That fragmentation shouldn’t be going to go away. This can be a extremely privatized market. There’s lots of people that work “out of community,” and I do not see that actually altering any time quickly. And, to resolve that top fragmentation, we constructed expertise that hyperlinks folks collectively in a means that enables them to speak and collaborate in order that it looks like they’re working collectively, even when all of them work in numerous organizations in numerous environments.
The second factor is systemic racism and bias in healthcare. That is one thing that has existed because the basis of this nation and the formation of the obstetrics and gynecological business. And we have to acknowledge that we’ve got not paid consideration to the wants of Black and brown girls, particularly Black and Indigenous girls. Broadly, we’ve got not been actively listening to moms for a very long time, which is why our maternal mortality stats are the place they’re, as a result of we’re ready for issues to occur quite than actively stopping them from occurring with extra scientific and psychosocial help.
The way in which that we’re addressing systemic racism and bias in maternal and toddler healthcare is by first constructing out a nationwide community of culturally competent suppliers {and professional} beginning professionals that perceive find out how to meet sufferers the place they’re at, and acknowledge that lived expertise is a component of your entire journey of being pregnant and postpartum.
We have to acknowledge that lived expertise. We won’t at all times match a affected person with somebody who appears to be like like them or comes from their group, however we are able to match sufferers with suppliers who acknowledge the systemic racism and bias that that affected person might have skilled – of their lifetime and of their healthcare expertise total – and start to deal with and unpack that.
MHN: You latterly accomplished your Collection A. How do you propose on utilizing that funding?
Hanna: We’re completely increasing our staff to have the ability to serve extra sufferers and suppliers by means of our platform. So, that is the primary factor, rising that staff in each path. We’re posting jobs each few days.
It is actually essential that we proceed to enhance the digital expertise for sufferers and suppliers on Mahmee. That features issues like releasing a local cell product and bettering accessibility and consumer expertise throughout the board. So product and engineering is an enormous space for hiring within the firm. We have already introduced some new of us on, and we’ll proceed rising there. After which, after all, we even have our nurses and care coordinators in-house.
MHN: Digital well being funding has slowed so far this year, but it surely looks as if there are a number of startups which can be interested by maternal and reproductive healthcare and bettering that have. Do you assume buyers are extra interested by maternal well being proper now? And if that’s the case, why do you assume this inflection level is occurring proper now?
Hanna: That is an important query. I do assume that we’re coming to an inflection level. I truly do not assume we’re there but.
Based mostly on our fundraising experiences in 2021 and 2022, it is clear to me that almost all buyers nonetheless are uncertain of find out how to consider impression and assess the worth of maternal and toddler health-focused options. There’s nonetheless very incessantly within the funding panorama a pull towards consumer-facing options that kind of eschews the healthcare business itself.
MHN: Like an app the place somebody will observe [their pregnancy] every single day for themselves, versus working with a supplier.
Hanna: Sure, precisely. There’s lots of extra conventional client approaches popping up in maternal and toddler healthcare, claiming to have the ability to resolve a number of the basic challenges that this subject is dealing with. However the place I see a misalignment available in the market is that the elemental challenges that this subject is dealing with are systemic. You possibly can’t repair the healthcare business with out working with the healthcare business.
It is not that direct-to-consumer options are ineffective. Actually, typically, they are often precisely what the affected person wants to enrich their healthcare journey. Nevertheless, the problem is that this explicit vertical is at present suffering from extraordinarily pricey systemic points, together with however not restricted to systemic racism, waste and reactive drugs, fragmentation, regional disparities in care, maternity deserts missing the vital service suppliers which can be wanted for secure and wholesome childbirth. So there is not any quantity of child monitoring or maternity monitoring alone that is going to unravel a few of these challenges.
I do not need to be too self-righteous about this; it has been extraordinarily onerous to work on this business. It would not transfer simply or shortly in any path. A lot of that has to do with the truth that girls’s well being and ladies’s lives and rights have been taken with no consideration and missed, or in some circumstances, outright ignored.
Over the previous 12 months, we have seen extra momentum, extra motion within the house usually. I famous that I do not assume that we’re on the inflection level but. I believe there’s nonetheless extra pleasure and optimistic development on this market to come back. It would not assist us if we’re the one ones available in the market. I believe that there is some thrilling motion right here occurring total, and I simply do not assume we’re on the pinnacle but of individuals actually understanding what’s attainable.
