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Meet Navigate Maternity

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Meet Navigate Maternity

March 2, 2023
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We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Navigate Maternity. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Navigate Maternity below.

Alright, Navigate Maternity thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.
The U.S has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. We currently rank 55th in the world for maternal mortality. A maternal death is defined by the World Health Organization as, “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes”. According to the CDC, the maternal mortality rate has more than doubled from 1987 to 2016 and the national maternal mortality rates continued to increase in 2020. More than half of these deaths are preventable.
According to the data, Black and Native American women are disproportionately the victims of catastrophic maternal events or death. Black mothers are 3-4x more likely to die from childbirth complications than White mothers despite socioeconomic factors. For this reason, Navigate Maternity (NM) has developed a remote monitoring maternal care management platform to capture, analyze, and communicate data in real-time for enhanced clinical decision making. Key biometric data is captured from the first prenatal appointment through twelve months postpartum via the patient’s mobile app and two Bluetooth connected devices. The mobile application will utilize validated questionnaires to better understand the patient’s health status.

Navigate Maternity, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Navigate Maternity was created by birthing people for birthing people. We are committed to advocating for the best maternal/perinatal care for all patients and we take great pride in our work. Our mission is to resolve the maternal/perinatal morbidity & mortality crisis caused by health disparities through big data analytics, remote monitoring and proactive care. NM is led by a dynamic team of four women experienced in healthcare (Medtech/Pharmaceuticals, UX Design, Obstetrics, and Hospital/Health Plan Operations). After seeing many friends and family facing high-risk complications during pregnancy and postpartum, these Black women united to re-imagine the maternal/perinatal experience. The United States fares worse in birthing outcomes, especially among Black women, than any other developed nation, and our goal is to change this narrative. By building the solution we want for ourselves, we ensure a safe, affirming, and equitable maternal/perinatal experience for all women.

Ariana McGee (CEO and Founder)-Mother of 4; 10+ years in healthcare commercialization, sales, and reimbursement leadership for med device and biotech

Thea James, MHA (COO)- 10+ years of experience in healthcare operations, managed care, data analytics and digital health

Dr. Elicia Harris, OB/GYN, MD, MBA (CMO)- 10+ practicing OB/GYN with MBA in healthcare

Jade McDonald (CPO)- 10+ of experience in medical device sales, commercialization and UX design

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The initial capital needed to start Navigate Maternity was provided through a Friends & Family investment round, which is when founders seek investments from accredited investors within their personal network. We opened our Friends & Family round in June 2022. Over the next six months, we were able to raise close to $500k in investments. Our round closed in December 2022.

 

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Networking and having a unique business strategy are the two most effective strategies when it comes to growing Navigate Maternity’s clientele. Being in a space where African Americans are underrepresented, bringing a different viewpoint to those in the space is very important to the team. NM’s goal is to create a “No Mother Lost” standard of care. This requires redesigning the maternal/perinatal experience to ensure a safe, affirming, and equitable experience for all women.

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