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©2024 BJHA
Researchers: Olivia Bergin, Sneha Tallam
Editor: Everest Maya- Tudor
Designer: Natalie Ho
The Drive to Improve Maternal Health
The deaths of women during pregnancy and childbirth remain a significant global concern. Every year, nearly 300,000 women die due to various maternal-related conditions, including pre-eclampsia, postpartum hemorrhage, and complications during delivery. This issue is especially severe in low and middle-income countries, with 87% of maternal deaths occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Most tragically, these deaths are entirely preventable. The technology within modern medicine is fully capable of resolving these health issues yet their limited distribution prevents them from saving lives.
Access to medical technology is essential to improve women’s health outcomes related to pregnancy and childbirth. One of the major challenges in achieving this goal is bridging the gap between the production of such technologies in the Global North and its distribution to communities in the Global South. While these technologies are accessible in high-income nations, they are virtually inaccessible in low and middle-income countries due to factors such as poverty, remoteness of communities, inadequate healthcare infrastructure, and a lack of medical knowledge. Therefore, a solution to the issue of high maternal mortality in certain nations must address the medical problems directly while also confronting the socio-cultural challenge that hinders access to medical interventions.
Maternova is an international company dedicated to improving maternal health globally by inventing and providing essential technologies for current and expectant mothers. They achieve this goal by researching and supporting maternal health innovations and connecting medical teams worldwide with these life-saving devices. Founded in 2009, Maternova started as a library of mostly low-tech innovations to raise awareness about these products. Over the years, the company evolved into a marketplace, offering a wider range of products, building stronger customer relationships, and increasing outreach to midwives internationally. Today, Maternova sells a variety of maternal and child health technologies wholesale to health systems in over 180 countries, reaching over 2 million women and infants. Maternova’s headquarters are located in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, where they continue to work toward expanding maternal health globally.
We spoke with Meg Wirth, Maternova’s Founder and President, about the company’s journey, products, and future vision. Wirth explained that she started Maternova to address global maternal mortality, a growing concern she was deeply interested in. From her previous work with married teen mothers, she realized that pregnant women of low socioeconomic status often lacked sufficient resources to support both their children’s health and their own. Although Wirth was involved with maternal mortality projects, it became increasingly frustrating as she saw projects culminate in a restatement of the issue at hand rather than taking action to reduce mortality rates. During a maternal mortality project in Indonesia, Wirth witnessed the inventiveness of midwives and their crucial role in providing prenatal and postpartum care in low-income communities. Wirth decided to take action to create medical innovations that could be utilized by midwives to expedite improvements in maternal mortality.
Wirth specifically discussed the CRADLE Vital Signs Alert (VSA) device, a device designed by hypertension experts in the United Kingdom to monitor pregnant women’s well-being in low-cost environments with limited trained medical professionals. With more than half of maternal mortality resulting from hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders, and sepsis, Wirth mentioned that it was important to create a device that was able to monitor the vital signs of pregnant women in order to diagnose pathologies before they progressed to a fatal level. The CRADLE VSA is not only a highly functioning vital signs monitor but also incorporates a color-coded light scale based on the shock index of the vital signs report. For instance, a green light would indicate that the patient is okay, while a red light is a signal that immediate care is needed. This algorithm ensures that reliable diagnoses are made without requiring highly trained medical professionals, making the CRADLE VSA an effective device in low-resource contexts. After 12 years of clinical trials in the United Kingdom, the CRADLE VSA was introduced to the market and is being used in many communities and even higher-level hospitals around the globe.
Maternova sources many other innovative, low-cost, and maintenance maternal and newborn products. For example, the Pratt Pouch, a portable pre-dosed antiretroviral device, is a simple solution that has the potential to stop a large percentage of new HIV infections each year. Additionally, the Non-pneumatic Anti-Shock Garment serves as a unique first-aid device to stabilize women experiencing obstetric hemorrhage by applying uniform compression over the entirety of the lower body.
By bridging the gap between advanced medical technology and its distribution in underserved areas, Maternova is helping to transform maternal care worldwide, reaching more than 180 countries. Their low-cost, effective, and innovative targeted solutions to a variety of maternal health issues pave the way for a future where equitable maternal healthcare is a reality for all.
2 Reproductive Health Matters. "Maternal Mortality and Morbidity." Reproductive Health Matters, vol. 29, no. 2, 2021, pp. 1-3. NCBI, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568218/.
3 Smith, Hannah, et al. "Trends and Causes of Maternal Mortality in the United States." National Center for Biotechnology Information, vol. 33, no. 1, 2021, pp. 45-56. PMC, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8902259/
4 Maternova. "Our Story." Maternova, www.maternova.net/pages/our-story.