AB: Roshane Sasson, he is the CEO and founder of Birthvue. Roshane, it’s so nice to see you again, andcould you start off with giving an introduction and background on yourself for the audience

RS: Thank you very much. I’m happy to see everyone that’s here today. Like previously mentioned, my name is Roshane Sasson. I am the founder and CEO of Birthvue, a digital health software company helping patients and clinicians improve their labor and delivery outcomes and experience. This all began while I was studying computer science at Penn State through a capstone course. I was allowed to work with an OBGYN that needed a product to show how strong patients were pushing during labor. Due to epidurals, patients often can’t tell how strong they are pushing, which can prolong labor and lead to a lot of complications. He mentioned other variables such as difficulties having an understaffed maternity department, which about 60% are understaffed in America, and I learned about the drastic and disproportionate maternal mortality and morbidity crisis in the US. Although a clinician solution is excellent and will help significantly, I questioned why there was no solution available for the woman going through this process. And from there, I started to begin and start this company.

AB: So can you talk a little bit more about Birthvue? What exactly do you do and what is the mission?

RS: Of course. Of course. Birthvue provides hospitals and health systems with user-friendly, autonomous, AI-based solutions that empower patients to maximize their performance and experience during labor and delivery. Our patient-centered solutionspair with maternal fetal monitors to analyze contraction strength data and form actionable labor insights. Additionally, predictive data analysis detects and forecasts the time contractions will arrive and their duration. With an available labor progression score and non-pharmacological options that automatically display based on patient’s current contraction intensity, we provide patients with a hands-free experience. Our clinician-facing solution helps to interconnect and optimize clinical workflow as well. Features allow for more personalized patient monitoring while minimizing the neglect resulting from implicit biases that occur, which disproportionately affect African-Americans. Our mission is to reduce maternal mortality rates and morbidity rates, facilitating a new standard of care. We want the baseline expectations to be women experiencing a patient-centered, comfortable, insightful, and healthy vaginal birth with minimizing emotional concerns as well as worries.

AB: That sounds amazing. And so wonderful to hear that what Birthvue is doing to help empower women and speaking on the terms of health equity and empowerment. Why is it important to empower women by giving them a space like this where they feel like they can be heard and seen?

RS: That’s a great question. The reason why it’s so important to give women a space where they can be heard is because we have seen the drastic adverse effects of neglect towards women within healthcare. Whether black, Hispanic, we all notice that oftentimes they don’tget the same attention that’s necessary. They could be screaming out in pain and they just get neglected and they don’t get looked towards compared to counterparts. Whether from implicit biases or other factors, this has led to dangerous and deadly outcomes for women simply wanting to be heard. Many patients feel their input is disregarded during labor and delivery and trying to be heard is essentially in vain. Rising statistics such as two-thirds of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, shows a significant cause for concern and the urgency towards empowering women with a space to be heard. Additionally, the positive benefits of giving them the space are many and immeasurable. Emotional concerns and anxiety are a significant part of the labor and delivery process. Being heard leads to understanding, quelling many of these concerns and boosting confidence which patients and clinicians want to see. So that’s why it’s essential and vital to give them this space where they could feel empowered.

AB: And so from your perspective, how do we properly give women that space? How do we increase health equity by giving them that space? Do you have any solutions for that?

RS: Absolutely. And the first solution that presents itself is listening. Listening to their concerns, worries, and what brings them confidence and security during this process. Many innovative solutions created are for clinicians and offer excellent ways to help women. However, many of these solutions aren’t patient-centered. They don’t focus primarily on the woman and create that solution around them. Most hope for a healthy vaginal birth with minimal complications and recovery time. So we should start formulating a space where these are the outcomes and this is the goal we want these patients to achieve. This goes beyond the hospital setting, however, as childbirth improvement comes from a focus on women’s health, not just pregnant women. With many patients feeling uninformed during childbirth, these resources must also include knowledge of factors that could present themselves during or potentially throughout the labor and delivery process. Having women look out for these things as precaution. Every woman may not want an epidural or see a doula and many other factors, but making sure those options are known and available helps them feel in control and allows their voices to be heard.

AB: Yeah, no, just the fact that you’re presenting options for women, like you said, we all have different preferences, so just the fact that you’re giving them options and giving them that space and letting them know that their voice matters and what their opinions and their wants matters. It’s already an amazing step forward in the right direction. And in terms of what the future looks like, what do you think is a more equitable future for women? What does this look like? What can we do to implement this? And then how does Birthvue even play a role in this as well?

RS: Great question. A more equitable future will look like every woman receiving exactly what they need to achieve the best and most successful outcomes. We will aim for a future where neglect is minimized, regardless of race, and the patient’s experience is prioritized. Easier and more convenient access to information will be available in this future and helping patients make informed decisions. A more equitable future will show an improved standard of care, delivering results and reducing unbiased opinions. Everyone is different, so patient-centered care is pivotal to achieving this. Personalizing an experiencehelps patients feel in control, confident, and facilitates communication with clinicians. And this is where our solution is deeply integrated. Our patient-facing solution and our clinician-facing solution come together. So, it’s interconnecting doctors and clinicians and patients so they all understand how a patient is progressing through their labor. What is their current pain score? What is their labor score? It comes together so that they can be there for them and patients don’t feel isolated or neglected or feel like they don’t have any worth speaking to clinicians. We can also implement this by taking a step back and looking at ways that current implementations still hurt women aiming to have an equitable future. For example, should a study done half a century ago that resulted in minimal findings stop women from being able to eat the simplest of items during labor and delivery? This is already a strenuous situation requiring significant amounts of energy and not being able to replenish from a solution that is significantly outdated only pushes back the equity that women are trying to achieve. So that is additionally one of the steps that we should take. Another would be to mould our solutions based on women of all races. Everyone is different. There’s no one-size-fits-all. And it would be an amazing method to have every woman, regardless of their background, coming together, looking at their needs and understanding what it would take from them, empowering them themselves to produce the best outcomes possible.

AB: No, I love this so much. This is such an inspiring conversation. And just the fact that you are so open and willing and wanting to make changes for more equitable futures for women. And so just one last question as we’re almost at time is how can women get in contact with you? How do they contact Birthvue? What does the process look like? And any other information you’d like to share for our women audience?

RS: Of course, you could contact me through my email at rsasson@birthvue.com, and additionally through our LinkedIn. I’m always willing to listen. I’m always willing to hear and understand what your birth stories are. A lot of women go through significant differences and just because you may have an experience doesn’t necessarily mean you should impose that on other people. So collecting this all together, using it to train our algorithm and our solutions would be the best method to give it to women so that they really understand what their current labor progress is. They could take these things into their own hands and produce the best outcomes possible. And yeah, always looking for interviews. If you recently gave birth, you can contact me as well to follow up as we provide a solution that could benefit women of all in the future.

AB: Yeah, I love that. The key takeaway is just to make sure you’re always there to listen at the very least. If you can’t do anything else, make sure you can listen. So I love that. Thank you so, so much for taking the time and sharing everything about Birthvue. I think it’s an amazing, amazing step into the right direction. So thank you so much again.

RS: Thank you so much, Ansley. Pleasure being here and speaking to all of you.