Irth App
CAN partners, the Maternal Wellness Village-Temple Program for Maternal Health Equity team and Breastfeeding, Awareness and Empowerment are working to establish a partnership with Irth to drive perinatal quality improvement. Now available in the Apple and Google Play app stores, Irth, as in “Birth” but without the B for bias, is a new digital platform to address a root cause of the Black maternal and infant mortality crises—racism and bias in care. The “Yelp-like” app allows Black women and birthing people to find and leave reviews of their OB/GYNs, birthing hospitals, postpartum care, and pediatricians, up to the baby’s first year. Irth also accepts reviews from fathers, birthing partners, doulas, and hospital-based midwives.
The front-end review and rating platform leverages Black consumer power to bring transparency and public accountability to the medical system and to provide a first of its kind, decision-making tool for pregnant people and new parents of color. On the back end, Irth turns qualitative experiences into quantitative data, providing up-to-date, patient-reported insights on experiences of care to hospitals, payers and providers. By bringing stratified data to the medical system, Irth drives respectful care and ultimately equity in perinatal services for Black birthing people. Data generated by Irth reviews can better inform current anti-bias training, provide a community-centered tracking and monitoring mechanism, and will serve as the foundation of a new suite of provider education tools, credentials and hospital accreditation -all rooted in the lived experience of care.
Philly Hospital Partners Wanted! We are looking for Philadelphia area hospitals to partner with to learn from the real-time, patient-reported insights on experiences of bias and racism in Irth. To set up an informational call about a hospital pilot, contact Kimberly Seals Allers.
Birthworkers & Community Orgs Needed! We also need community organizations, birth workers, and anyone who cares about Black maternal and infant health to help spread the word about Irth to get more area reviews in the app. Use this form to get in touch to organize an Irth event, request our promo cards, QR code, graphics for text messaging and newsletters, or other promotional material to distribute.
Together, the collective experiences of Black birthing people have the power to change the system!
Irth, a project of the New York City-based tech and media non-profit, Narrative Nation Inc. and is funded by the Tara Health Foundation, Grove Foundation and California Health Care Foundation. Learn more at www.IrthApp.com Follow on Instagram & Facebook: @theIrthApp; Twitter @IrthApp