Maternova is the first global marketplace for ideas and technologies saving mothers and newborns.

We make it easy for doctors, nurses and midwives to track innovation and to buy prebundled tools to use overseas. Our focus is on tools and protocols that save lives in childbirth. We are a mission-driven for-profit.

What is Maternova all about?

We are about moving maternal and newborn care into the 21st century.

Two very basic questions guide our work.

• What effective, low-cost tools (in development or on the market) can save mothers' and newborns' lives in low-resource settings?
• How can these tools be accessed and distributed?

Two goals core to our mission derive from these three questions:

• track innovations
• pack & sell low-cost tools

Who is the audience?

Our audience is the frontline health worker and all organizations, policymakers, and individuals who support her.

In their fight to save women’s lives, health workers are in desperate need of information, tools, skills, and peer connection. To maximize resources and empower their efforts, Maternova is building a portal for innovation in global maternal and neonatal health.

Our aim is the creation of a go-to site for connection, technology, and cutting-edge thought in global maternal health. The field has already welcomed medical, public health, design, and business professionals, but new groups-- industrial designers, entrepreneurs, engineers-- are increasingly interested in the power of simple innovations to change lives. Maternova seeks to build on these seismic changes, to amplify their positive effect on women and their families.

Why was Maternova launched?

A terrible fact: in the 21st century developing world, pregnancy remains a leading cause of death amongst women of childbearing age. Unfortunately, despite sharp advances in communications technology, the maternal health field lacks an efficient means of rapid, efficient knowledge sharing. Clearly there is an urgent need for a discrete place where innovations in maternal health can be tracked and promoted, and voices of frontline providers can be heard. Enter Maternova, answering this need with a fresh approach, away from the rote of academic journals, meetings and conferences.

What recognition has Maternova received?

We are riding a wave of momentum. In 2010 we were an 'early winner' in a a contest by Changemakers/Ashoka contest called "Healthy Mothers, Strong World". We were also a semi-finalist in the Secretary of State's Competition for Empowerment of Women and Girls In 2011 we were a semi-finalist for the Buckminster Fuller Prize and the William James Foundation Social Enterprise Competition. We were also a finalist in the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition and the MassChallenge competition! We participated in the 90 day MassChallenge Accelerator program in Boston over the summer of 2011. Finally, in June of 2011 we won the LOHAS Prize (Life of Health and Sustainability).

In the Fall of 2011 we were a finalist in the Cartier Women's Initiative and in the Katerva Prize on Global Sustainability. In addition we were recognized by the Providence Business News in the Innovations Awards.