Maternova

Maternova and Culture Baby have partnered in a creative way to make a newborn's entry into the world connect even more closely with the rest of the globe. Natalia Rankine Galloway is the Founder of Culture Baby After the birth of her first baby she felt very acutely the good fortune she had to give birth supported by skilled care. She also wanted to create a business that directly connected the birth of a new baby to something bigger--a lot bigger- to a global consciousness. Natalia's products are sourced from artisans all around the world--she finds beautiful hand crafted baby goods that are actually part of traditional cultures (rather than say a plastic cup with an ikat print)!

When we came across this unique take on the clean birth kit we were really impressed--anything that puts a unique, positive spin on creating a safer birth is very welcome! This Tibetan birth kit combines 'how to' images and actual implements in a beautiful box meant to be given as a wedding gift. The RISD team rebranded the concept of birth kit as 'sanitary item' into wedding gift. To be clear, this birth kit was only taken through the prototype stage and is not available anywhere for purchase (yet).

Kathleen O'Donnell, Soomi Lee and Esther An worked on this project as part of a RISD course in 2010 for a studio class titled "Design for Social Entrepreneurship" taught by Sloan Kulper. We interviewed Kathleen O'Donnell to find out more.

During humanitarian crises (such as armed conflicts, famine, epidemics and natural disasters), danger and uncertainty mean that access to quality reproductive health services is often severely limited. As a result, reproductive health issues become more pronounced and more urgent—including an increase in preventable maternal and child deaths due to lack of emergency obstetric care; sexual violence and trauma; unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions; and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.