A maternal health platform geared toward Black mothers has received funding to drive progress in its sector. According to The Brown Daily Herald, Birth By Us, co-founded in 2021 by UC Berkeley alum Ijeoma Uche and MIT pre-med student Mercy Oladipo, obtained $40,000 in unrestricted funding due to being a recipient of the 2024 Westly Prize for Young Social Innovators. The award was created by The Westly Foundation, which provides “funding opportunities that advance education, improve healthcare access, and support the growth and well-being of our children,” its website mentions. Additionally, the fund amplifies the efforts of social innovators such as Uche and Oladipo. “I personally felt so supported in a way I haven’t felt in a very long time. It’s harder to get the funding it needs to progress as fast as other companies,” Uche told The Brown Daily Herald. Uche and Oladipo are now backed in their initial calling to ensure Black women can receive better maternal health outcomes as...

Black women deserve to have a healthy and safe pregnancy journey. This is why Layo George started Wolomi, a maternal health platform that provides community and helps mothers explore the healthcare system.

Jade Kearney is placing Black women at the forefront of mental health and wellness. As the CEO of She Matters, Kearney created the digital health platform to ensure Black women and women of color find the support they need. Kearney hopes to provide women the assistance she failed to receive following the birth of her daughter while working to complete her second master’s at New York University. “When I had postpartum, I was feeling the cultural norms of suffering in silence and I was invisible to the healthcare system. I experienced a lot of cultural stigma around mental illness and when it came to healthcare professionals or healthcare networks, I didn’t have any of them making the connection between what I had gone through physically while giving birth, which was preeclampsia and hemorrhage,” Kearney told AfroTech exclusively.