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.

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The Fayetteville City Council is set to take up an appeal tonight that could affect a drone manufacturer's ability to continue operating at its current location in the city.

Why it matters: Swarm Aero, which recently opened near Drake Field with little public knowledge or input, has stirred controversy among Fayetteville residents who oppose it.

Flashback: Fayetteville's Board of Adjustments last month ruled city planning staff misclassified Swarm Aero as "heavy commercial and light industrial" business. The classification allowed the business to lease a facility and begin operating without a public rezoning process.

How it works: If the City Council does not grant Swarm Aero's appeal, the business can either seek to rezone the property or move.

Other items on the council's agenda include:

🏗️ Appealing the approval of allowing the new Ramay Junior High School to be built on about 27 acres south of North Marks Mill Lane and north of East Ash Street at the request of council member Teresa Turk.

🚧 Applying for a $7.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for safety and mobility improvements on Joyce Boulevard. The city would match $1.2 million.

🧑‍💼 Adding two positions within the Development Services Department to help customer service through reduced development review delays and improved response times for $164,900 this year.

📍If you go: 5:30pm at City Hall or online

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🏫 The Farmington School District has hired its first licensed social worker. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

🛝 Carr Street Park, Pea Ridge's first inclusive park with wheelchair accessible equipment and sensory-friendly areas, is now open. (KNWA)

🥎 The Arkansas Razorbacks softball team won the NCAA Regional in Fayetteville on Sunday and will go on to the Super Regional against the Duke Blue Devils on Friday in Fayetteville. (Whole Hog Sports)

Stay off the road Thursday and Friday afternoons if you want to avoid the worst Memorial Day weekend traffic, according to INRIX forecasts.

Why it matters: AAA predicts this will be the busiest Memorial Day ever for travel — meaning your departure time could make or break your trip.

Zoom in: Sunday is a good driving day, per INRIX, a transportation data analytics company that works with AAA to calculate travel times.

By the numbers: AAA anticipates that more than 45 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more over Memorial Day weekend. That's 200,000 more than last year.

• The bulk of them — more than 39 million travelers — will be driving.

What we're watching: Aggressive Monday-morning drivers.

• AAA and Cambridge Mobile Telematics clocked a 29% spike in Memorial Day speeding compared to other Mondays, with speeding peaking 7am–9am.