A maternal health concept designed to strengthen support across the care journey
I developed this concept on behalf of Raising St. Louis, a program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, to explore how maternal support could extend beyond clinical visits and into a more connected care system.
The work focused on improving care access, strengthening provider responsiveness, and connecting families with more consistent support across pregnancy and early parenthood.
Maternal outcomes are shaped by fragmented support, inconsistent care, and barriers to access
This project began with a systems question: how might maternal healthcare better support families navigating unequal access, disconnected services, and preventable complications?
- Families often encounter barriers to quality care shaped by trust, communication, coordination, and unequal treatment across the healthcare system.
- Providers may not have enough support or structure for adapting care to the real barriers their patients face.
- Mothers need guidance that continues between visits, including advocacy, navigation support, and stronger links to community resources.
- When provider education, patient support, and local services are disconnected, outcomes worsen and costs rise across the system.
A more connected maternal support model could improve outcomes for both families and providers
This concept explored how a single program could strengthen maternal care from multiple angles: provider learning, patient advocacy, doula support, and stronger connections to local organizations already doing critical work.
The design question
How might a maternal health program reduce barriers to care, support more responsive providers, and give families stronger guidance throughout pregnancy and early parenthood?
Connecting provider learning with parent-centered support
Providers for Parents was designed as a multi-part support model that paired provider education with more direct family support. Rather than improving one moment in care, it aimed to strengthen the broader maternal health ecosystem.
Provider education
Learning sessions for nurses, physicians, and office teams focused on implicit bias, cultural humility, and more adaptive care.
Hotspotting sessions
Providers learned directly from patient experiences to better understand real barriers to access and quality care.
Doula connection
Moms were connected with doulas who could support physical and emotional well-being while helping bridge care gaps.
Community coordination
Local partnerships helped make the concept more sustainable and improved access to trusted maternal and infant health resources.
Designed for both families navigating care and providers shaping that experience
This work centered mothers and families, while also designing for the clinicians, office teams, doulas, and local organizations that influence care quality and access.
- More agency in healthcare decisions
- Trusted support across pregnancy and early parenthood
- Clearer guidance through care and community resources
- Better ways to adapt care to patient realities
- Stronger patient-centered and culturally responsive practices
- More connected workflows with community support systems
Aligned value across families, providers, and the wider care system
For mothers and families
More support in care decisions, better advocacy in health settings, and stronger connection to local maternal and infant health resources.
For providers and care teams
Practical education on bias and cultural humility, along with more visibility into the barriers shaping patient outcomes.
For the healthcare system
A stronger preventative support model with potential to improve outcomes, reduce avoidable complications, and create long-term system value.
Designing across services, stakeholders, and long-term outcomes
Care beyond visits
The concept treated maternal health as an ongoing support journey, not just a series of appointments.
Trust and behavior
Better outcomes depended not only on clinical care, but also on trust, guidance, and support families could actually use.
Multi-sided design
The system was shaped for parents, providers, doulas, office teams, and community partners at the same time.
System alignment
The biggest opportunity was in connecting fragmented support into a more coordinated maternal care experience.
A concept for extending maternal support through a more connected model
This work translated a complex maternal health challenge into a clearer systems concept. It framed a direction for supporting families more holistically while also strengthening provider capability and regional care coordination.
Service concept
A connected model combining provider learning, doula support, and local partnerships.
Strategic framing
A clearer direction for how Raising St. Louis could expand its impact through a scalable support system.
A path from concept to implementation
- Start with provider learning sessions for obstetric teams and office staff
- Introduce patient-informed hotspotting sessions grounded in lived experience
- Build referral pathways connecting moms with doulas and trusted local resources
- Measure early indicators around engagement, care adaptation, coordination, and maternal-infant outcomes
Proposal and supporting materials
Program proposal
Supporting materials
An early example of how I think about complex systems today
This project reflects how I approach fragmented systems, multiple stakeholders, and services that need to work together. It directly informs how I design for complex ecosystems in product work.
It reinforced an idea that continues to shape my work: meaningful outcomes often come from improving coordination, trust, and support across the full system, not just optimizing a single touchpoint.