App targets postpartum care gap
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Conway entrepreneur Kim Lane built the postpartum care app Momme to support mothers during the weeks between hospital discharge and their first follow-up visit.
Why it matters: The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income countries, and more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. The weeks after delivery are some of the most vulnerable and least supported periods in maternal health care.
- Lane calls it the "postpartum care gap," when mothers are sent home with limited guidance. It's usually about six weeks between delivery and follow-up.
How it works: Momme gives mothers daily, stage-specific updates on what may be happening with their bodies and minds after birth. The app includes daily check-ins, symptom-screening questions, mental health support, grounding exercises and prompts to call an OB-GYN or seek emergency care when warning signs appear.
- Lane calls it "smart escalation," a feature health care providers like because new and anxious moms often "call when it's not really a problem, but then on the flip side, when there's a big problem, sometimes they don't call."
Zoom in: The idea grew from Lane's own postpartum anxiety after her first child was born in 2020 and the later death of a mother connected to a close friend who experienced preventable postpartum complications.
- "You go home, and you're completely alone," Lane told Axios. "I had no clue what was happening."
State of play: She built the app over three years while working in the entrepreneurship policy world. She designed the user experience herself and bootstrapped the company without investors.
- The app is built to feel more like a consumer product than a medical portal. The goal was to translate medical research into language that sounds more like "your friend or sister talking to you," Lane said.
Threat level: Building Momme in Arkansas sharpened her sense of urgency because the state has one of the nation's highest maternal mortality rates and large rural areas where postpartum care can be harder to reach, she told Axios.
What she's saying: "If we can prompt moms in these care deserts to at least check in on themselves or check in on what's normal … we've bridged some gap," Lane said.
Details: The app costs $70 for consumers, but health care providers can buy access in bulk for $60 per patient and gift it to mothers. There are no recurring charges for moms to pay.
The bottom line: Momme is a new option to help provide more continuous, practical and accessible postpartum care.