After Jade Kearney suffered from postpartum depression and anxiety but was dismissed by caregivers, she hoped to create a platform where black women like her could receive culturally competent care.
Her experience led her to co-found and lead She Matters, a digital health platform focused on supporting Black women experiencing postpartum communicable diseases and providing cultural competency training for caregivers. The company is part of the Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022.
“Understanding the terminology around postpartum care and understanding maternal health and immersing ourselves in childbirth is not just for black women,” Kearney said. “It’s the health care system and health care professionals to meet us halfway and to be culturally competent and help us.”
Training requires providers to attend courses but also to interact with Black women in the community. Kearney told TechCrunch that doctors need those interactions to better understand the community’s concerns and needs. At any given time, the company can train more than 500 caregivers per contract in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 3 US states.
Image Credits: She matter
In addition to training physicians, She Matters allows individuals to access what they call “The Pink Book,” a reference to the Green Book used by black drivers during the Jim Crow era. The book is an interactive map that users can use to find what they believe. Individuals can request events and information from qualified physicians to become part of the She Matters community.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infant mortality rates are higher among BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities, especially those who give birth black. For every 1,000 live births, about 11 infants die. In addition, black women are four times more likely to die during childbirth and 80% more likely to end up in a postpartum emergency room than their white peers.
The hope for companies like She Matters is that by increasing cultural competency, the above rates will decrease.
“The only way a doctor can really help you is if you’re comfortable being honest about what you’re going through, and there are so many barriers to honesty for black women,” Kearney said. “There’s a lot of negative history among black women in the health care system, which makes it difficult to get to the root of many postpartum maternal illnesses in general, because we’re afraid of doctors, we feel unheard. . . . And if you look at the health care system in America, it’s steeped in systemic racism, and it needs to be improved.” .
Although the company’s primary focus is on people of black birth, the company will release We Matter as an additional product line in 2023 to better serve other historically marginalized communities. We Matter Ella Importa (Latinx/Community Focus) adds. Native (Focus on Native Community); And They Matter (LGBTQIA+ Community Focus).
