Birth By Us
The pregnancy and postpartum app for women of color
Idea in Health Care
Introduction
The US is currently in a maternal health crisis. Even though 84% of maternal deaths in the US are preventable, maternal mortality rate steadily rises, disproportionately affecting Black people who are currently 3-4 times more likely to die in childbirth compared to their White counterparts.
The maternal health market currently fails Black women and birthing people as the current offerings are typically not Black-centered and those that do fit that criterion tend to be costly or narrow in scope. This is exactly where Birth By Us comes in. We aim to create a new vision for Black maternal health and to be known as the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum app for Black women and their families by innovatively introducing technology with payoffs for both parents and providers, combining data analytics with robust resources to help everyone achieve their best possible outcome
Problem
With rising maternal mortality rates triple those of any other developed nation, the United States today is clearly plagued by disparate birth outcomes (Taylor et al., 2022). At the same time, these rates are not equal, as they disproportionately affect women and birthing people of color, specifically Black people who are currently 3-4 times more likely to die in childbirth compared to their White counterparts often due to missed signs and routine dismissal from their providers (CDC, 2021).
From statistics like this, combined with the fact that 84% of maternal deaths were deemed preventable as seen in data reported from Maternal Mortality Review Committees (multidisciplinary committees tasked with reviewing the circumstances surrounding each maternal death) it is clear that the U.S. healthcare system is failing its patients, especially Black women (CDC, 2022).
As pre-medical Black women, we knew something needed to change, and that if they didn’t, we may fall prey to the very issues we aim to solve. Committed to centering the voices of key stakeholders, we began by listening. From August 2021 to June 2022, we conducted focus groups and individual interviews with over 140 stakeholders, including but not limited to Black women and birthing people, their partners, doulas, midwives, obstetricians, quality improvement experts, and academic researchers.
In this research, a common pattern emerged: Black women and expectant parents feel disempowered and fearful in their pregnancy and postpartum journeys, like they do not have the necessary resources to achieve an optimal perinatal outcome for themselves and their families. At the same time, we found that maternal care providers are aware of the statistics and want to effect change, but feel that they lack the critical insights and effective strategies they should implement to help eradicate this crisis.
Opportunity
A positive birth experience can set the tone for a lifetime of care with an institution and we hope to help Black birthing people regain that crucial trust in hospital systems.
Birth By Us provides comprehensive wellness check-ins at sequential points in pregnancy and postpartum through our quality questionnaires to give Black birthing people personalized health insights and top-tier, culturally responsive and Black–specific resources. Upon completion of each questionnaire, our app analyzes and uncovers users top concerns, yielding tailored visit preparation and recommended resources. In addition, users will be able to create their own birthing plan in the app. In future iterations, we will add the ability for users to create their in-app birthing village (including partner and doulas), connecting all members of their support team in one place and keeping everyone updated on birthing goals and key health stats. We are also excited to help providers make individualized and personalized care possible by supplying users with shareable health progress reports, flagging concerns and notes from their doula, which can be easily uploaded to electronic health portals and discussed at care appointments.
Once a critical mass of users has been established in the app, we will incorporate the next phase of our solution where we more closely integrate with providers. We plan to take the guess-work out of improvement by turning patients’ feedback into comprehensive, routine quality reports placed side-by-side with valuable resources to help providers make impactful changes. We will uniquely break down patient feedback to uncover facets of care related to implicit and unconscious bias among other holistic metrics