Recently, one of the infants at the hospital where I am an OB-GYN was born at just 24 weeks. For unknown reasons, her mom went into labor. Though efforts were made to stall the contractions, the labor continued and we took measures to accelerate the maturity of the fetal lungs and brain, and prevent pulmonary complications of prematurity.

At 24 weeks, a premature infant is really tiny, with fragile skin and bones. After safely delivering via C-section (which are often medically necessary for extremely preterm births), we handed the infant off to the neonatologist and their team, and they worked their magic while we sewed mom up.

While both mom and baby face long roads ahead to recovery and physical and emotional health, I know their strength and resilience will carry them through.

How I talk with parents about preterm birth  

Preterm birth — defined as birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy — is a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. The U.S. preterm birth rate is among the worst globally, at 9.9% as of 2017 — meaning around 1 in 10 babies are born prematurely each year.[1]

Understanding and managing the risks for preterm labor is one of the core challenges for both expecting mothers and physicians. The stark reality is that preterm birth can happen to any expecting parent. But there are ways to help prevent it.

Here’s some of the guidance I provide my patients to help manage the things they can control:

• Seek early and ongoing prenatal care.
• Wait at least 6 months between pregnancies.
• Don’t smoke, and avoid alcohol and illicit drugs — especially during pregnancy.
• Try to maintain a healthy lifestyle by getting adequate sleep and rest, prioritizing good nutrition, and managing stress and anxiety.

Other risk factors, however, are entirely out of an individual’s control. There are racial, ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic disparities for preterm birth which point even further to our need for more equitable healthcare for women and families. In 2017, the preterm birth rate was nearly 50% higher among black women (14%) compared with white women (9%).[2]

Plus, an individual’s job is a risk factor: working more than 40 hours a week has been associated with a 38% higher risk of miscarriage and 21% higher risk of preterm birth, and working night shifts has also been linked to a 21% higher risk of preterm delivery.[3] Of course, we can make recommendations for a pregnant woman to work with their employer to change shifts or cut down on overtime, but options may be limited based on their job function or industry, and certain social determinants may prevent them from being able to do so.

Understanding the hardships

Premature infants often face long NICU stays, which can mean challenging emotional journeys for families.

There are financial tolls, too, for parents and employers. The average cost for infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units is around $3,000 per day. To put that in context: the average cost to an employer for a healthy baby born at full-term, or 40 weeks’ gestation, is $2,830; and the average cost for a premature baby is $41,610.[4]

While the majority of preterm labors are in the moderate- to late-preterm range (meaning birth between 32 to 37 weeks), the costs of extremely premature births — like this one — can run in the $100,000s. And still, these exorbitant numbers don’t include healthcare costs later in life due to complications that may result from premature birth like cerebral palsy, sensory deficits including retinopathy or hearing loss, learning disabilities, or respiratory illnesses.

How Maven is working to reduce preterm births

At Maven, we’re on a mission to reduce preterm labors and premature births by increasing access to comprehensive and holistic women’s health and prenatal care — lifting the emotional burden on families, and reducing the financial costs to individuals, employers, and health plans.

How? Maven’s high-touch care delivery model, coupled with our clinical and patient-centered approach, means that we assess and manage members’ risks early and often in a pregnancy, and provide quality care tailored to best meet their needs. By providing empathetic, easy-to-access, end-to-end care, Maven empowers individuals with the information they need to be their healthiest selves during pregnancy.

“We’re on a mission to reduce preterm labors and premature births by increasing access to comprehensive and holistic women’s health and prenatal care — lifting the emotional burden on families and reducing the financial costs to individuals, employers, and health plans.”

Let’s dive a bit deeper into how Maven works with high-risk members starting from the moment they join:

1. Assessing risks early and often: Our onboarding assessment — which a Maven member is guided through on our app as soon as they join and check the box saying “I’m Pregnant” — helps identify risk factors for preterm labor, such as age, family history, if you’ve had a preterm birth before, or if you’re pregnant with more than one baby. Plus, Care Advocates’ continuous engagement with our members means we can manage risks as they emerge during pregnancy — like preeclampsia or elevated blood pressure diagnoses.
2. Creating specialized clinical tracks for risks: When individuals are part of Maven’s high-risk pregnancy track, they receive personalized care plans that address their specific needs like managing hypertension or monitoring a shortened cervix.
3. Coordinating high-touch care through personalized plans: For a Maven member in the high-risk pregnancy track, their Care Advocate is with them every step of the way: answering their questions and providing 1:1 support through on-demand video or messaging chats; working with them to create a personalized care plan; and helping steer them to in-person doctors in their network who specialize in their specific condition(s). Care Advocates sit at the center of a member’s Maven care team, coordinating their appointments with specialists in our network to ensure they’re speaking with the right providers at the right moments in their pregnancy.
4. Filling gaps in holistic care with providers across 20+ specialties: Maven’s network of more than 1600 providers across 20+ specialties are available on-demand for video and messaging appointments with no out-of-pocket costs for members — which can make a huge difference in managing risks. For instance, a high-risk member’s care team on Maven might consist of: a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist (an OB-GYN who is an expert in high-risk pregnancies), a Nutritionist, a Diabetes Coach, a Physical Therapist, a Career Coach, and a Mental Health Provider.

The bottom line

Preterm birth can be scary, emotional, expensive, and stressful. If you know a mom who has given birth prematurely, bring her dinner. Take care of her older kids so she can visit the NICU as often as she wants. Check-in on her partner to offer emotional support or a helping hand.

If a new parent who has experienced preterm birth is your employee, work with them to set a flexible schedule for their return to work, and provide Maven as a benefit to meet their holistic needs throughout their postpartum period and transition back to work.

We’ve all heard the saying ‘it takes a village’, and this is one of those times when the village is needed more than ever.

Dr. Jane van Dis is Maven’s Medical Director, a board-certified OB-GYN, and a frequent writer and speaker about gender equity in medicine. Follow her @JaneVanDis.

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References:

1. March of Dimes 2018 Premature Birth Report Card
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Preterm Birth Data
3. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, accessed via Reuters
4. U.S. Institute of Medicine data, accessed via Managed Care Magazine

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NEW YORK, January 23, 2019 — Maven, a digital health company focused on bringing women and families better access to healthcare, announced today that it has hired Melissa Frieswick  as its Chief Revenue Officer. This announcement comes off of the recent news that Maven raised $27 million in Series B funding in September from leading funds Sequoia and Oak HC/FT and expanded its product suite, which includes fertility, egg freezing, adoption, maternity, and infant care, with the introduction of a breastmilk shipping service.

Maven, founded in 2014, was named one of the Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare by Fast Company in 2018. Frieswick joins as the company continues to expand its footprint by delivering women and new parents quality healthcare from vetted professionals and the support needed to return to work comfortably and successfully.

“2018 was our biggest year yet, but we know there’s still so much more work to be done to support women and diverse families in the workforce and in leadership positions,” said Maven Founder and CEO, Katherine Ryder. “Melissa’s experience partnering with some of the nation’s largest, most forward-thinking employers will be instrumental as we continue to bring on more Fortune 50 companies and deliver Maven to hundreds of thousands of more patients and clients - bringing about real, practical changes for today’s working families.”

Frieswick has a proven track record of building high performing Sales and Client Success teams. She was most recently Senior Vice President of Sales at Virgin Pulse, part of Sir Richard Branson’s famed Virgin Group that helps organizations build employee health and wellbeing into the DNA of their corporate cultures. In this new role, Frieswick will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of sales, business development and client success, worldwide at Maven.

“As a working mother myself, I’m drawn to Maven's mission to help women return to the workforce and live lives that are fulfilling both personally and professionally,” said Melissa Frieswick. “I’m excited to join Maven's team, which is rich in both talent and passion. Together, we are going to disrupt how the market is approaching women's health, family planning and diversity within the workforce. We aim to close a multitude of gaps in women's healthcare and support women and families no matter where they are in their journeys to motherhood and fatherhood.”

About Maven  
Maven is the only virtual clinic dedicated to women's and family health. Named one of Fast Company's "10 Most Innovative Healthcare Companies in 2018," Maven's leading family benefits platform advances women in the workplace and makes it easier for parents to start and grow a family during a critical time in their careers. Maven's platform gives on-demand access to best-in-class women's and family health specialists, and makes it affordable and easy to get advice, diagnoses, and even prescriptions via video appointments, private messaging, and community-based forums. Maven operates both an on-demand consumer marketplace in addition to its family benefits platform for employers, which offers programs around fertility, adoption, maternity, and return-to-work. Maven was founded in 2014 by Katherine Ryder, has raised more than $42m, and is backed by Sequoia Capital, Oak HC/FT, Spring Mountain Capital, 14W, 8VC, The Box Group, and Female Founders Fund, among others.

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Below are a few of our proudest moments we’d love to share with you.

Over 1 million women turned to Maven for support
In 2018, we more than tripled the amount of women we were able to help with expert health advice the minute they needed it.

We raised a $27m round of funding from Sequoia and Oak
In September, we raised a $27M Series B, led by Sequoia Capital and Oak HC/FT, bringing Maven’s total funding to $42M and allowing us to help hundreds of thousands more women and families.

We launched with multinational clients
In Canada, the UK, Brazil, Germany, Australia, India, and more.

We added exciting new clients including Fortune 50 employers
Our new clients include technology, financial services, retail, CPG, and consulting companies.

We’re helping companies in crisis
Some companies, who have been in a negative spotlight recently, have turned to Maven to help better support pregnant employees—as well as advise on policies at an organizational level.

We hired our Chief Revenue Officer
Melissa Frieswick has joined Maven from Virgin Pulse.

We launched two new programs
Now offering adoption and surrogacy support.

We launched our own breast milk shipping service!
Maven Milk offers simple domestic breast milk shipping within the U.S. and international travel kits for working moms.

We expanded our women’s and family health network to cover new specialties
Our practitioner network - the largest women’s health network in the US - includes over 1,350 practitioners covering over 20 different specialities—including new verticals such as Pediatric Occupational Therapy and Naturopathic Medicine.

We created the first-ever prep course for working mothers
Maven’s Guide to Working Motherhood is our 61-week prep course that empowers women to have safe deliveries, healthy recoveries, and confident transitions to working motherhood. Examples include Episiotomies: What you need to know, Finalize childcare and back-up

We shone a light on maternal mental health
Our national maternal mental health campaign revealed that 55% of moms with perinatal mood disorders were never screened at any point.

We released a cutting-edge report on Egg Freezing
We revealed how companies can maximize the results of offering egg freezing benefits to their employees. Download the report.

We launched weekly insights from the front lines of women’s healthcare
Jane’s Friday Thoughts, are a collection of entries on the state of modern maternity from practicing OB-GYN and Maven Medical Director, Jane van Dis, posted every Friday on the Maven blog.

We drove outcomes across our current patient base
We helped our current clients reduce maternity-related costs, reduce anxiety, screen and treat postpartum mood disorders, and bring new parents back to work with confidence.

We earned great press

Maven named World’s Most Innovative Companies 2018
Fast Company

The Boss: How Kate Ryder Started a Healthcare App Designed for Women
Time

Maven is Top 10 New York City Startups to Watch in 2019
Inc

This Founder Raised $42m to Start A Digital Health Clinic for Women
Forbes

We’re truly making an impact, hear what our members are saying

“I spoke with a midwife when I found out I had a breeched baby. She was able to provide me with some suggestion of what I could do to help flip my baby. I took many of those suggestions and was able to get my baby in the correct position which helped me avoid a C-Section. This is a life-changing product.”
- Maven member

“I have used every service Maven offers—from lactation consultants to digital doulas to mental health professionals. The LC was especially helpful as I navigated a rare and painful breast condition; the digital doula gave me tips for staying in labor at home; and the nurses have answered tons of questions about my baby in the hours that my pediatrician was closed and I was worried!
- Maven member

“Egg freezing is something that so few people are educated on and Maven provides a platform for women to ask informed individuals about it without having to think twice about if they'd know the answer or not.”
- Maven member

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