Author Archives: BabyLiveAdvice Inc.

BabyLiveAdvice Announces $1.1M Seed Investment to Improve Maternal-Infant Health Outcomes

CALABASAS, Calif. /ScoopCloud/ -- BabyLiveAdvice™, the leading virtual maternal telehealth provider, announced the completion of a $1.1 million seed investment led by Venn Ventures and Synergen Technology Labs. BabyLiveAdvice, founded by CEO Sigi Marmorstein, RN, PHN, MSN, FNP-BC, partners with healthcare providers and health systems to support coordinated, comprehensive prenatal, postpartum, and infant care anywhere by closing the care gaps experienced by expecting and new parents. The result is reduced complications and better outcomes for parents and babies.

Participating strategic investors span the healthcare ecosystem, including

* Venn Ventures, venture capital group,

* Synergen Technology Labs, technology innovators,

* Ob Hospitalist Group (OBHG) the nation's largest and only dedicated OB hospitalist provider,

* CareFirst BCBS, payer organization, and

* LifeBridge Health, hospital system.

"Providing safe and timely care to pregnant people and infants has always been a tremendous challenge," said Marmorstein. "Now, with decreasing outpatient and inpatient care capacities, related to provider burnout and shortage, maternal-infant care gaps are growing, resulting in worsening outcomes for parents and babies.

"BabyLiveAdvice's unique approach enables it to reduce these gaps and improve outcomes to enhance, not replace, the current standard of care."

BabyLiveAdvice had served over 40,000 parents, including Hispanic, Black, Navajo Nation, and other historically underserved populations. Through research and pilots, BabyLiveAdvice has demonstrated improved clinical outcomes, decreased emergency room use, reduced readmissions, and fewer postpartum complications.

Marmorstein explained how BabyLiveAdvice, "provides services that support marginalized, remote communities at a fraction of the cost with improved outcomes. We are the only company on the market that can support the entire pregnancy journey in one place from the comfort of the user's home without increasing the provider burden. With BabyLiveAdvice, babies now come with instructions."

Users have access to a network of resources and support for their journey to parenthood, including nurses, nurse-practitioners, doulas, lactation specialists, socialworkers, mental health providers, nutritional specialists, care coordinators, diabetic specialists, and virtual group education classes.

BLA provides users with virtual, live maternal education classes that support self-care and self-advocacy. Users receive significantly improved maternal-infant education in lactation, proper nutrition, mental health, weight management, blood pressure and blood sugar control, and other benefits.

"Maternal health is often overlooked and is an area of healthcare ripe for innovation benefitting both parents and children," said Melissa Larson Youngblood, BabyLiveAdvice Board Member and Co-Founder and Partner at Venn Ventures, which co-led the investment round. "It was easy to invest in BabyLiveAdvice and Sigi as a women entrepreneur. The company is mature, has a strong pipeline, and has tens of thousands of users across the nation."

BabyLiveAdvice leverages a VSee-built, customized telehealth solution that is HIPAA-compliant, featuring EHR integration, telemonitoring capabilities, chat functionality, and group or one-on-one consultations. All consultations are documented, and notes are shared with the patient's medical provider through seamless EHR integration to assure medical and supportive care are well aligned.

"Through our BabyLiveAdvice partnership, we look forward to providing new maternal care resources to our patients and hospital partners," said Dr. Amy VanBlaricom, OBHG's Chief Clinical Officer and BabyLiveAdvice board member. "We are especially excited about BabyLiveAdvice's potential to positively impact patients with access to care challenges and the minority populations we serve. BabyLiveAdvice aligns with OBHG's mission of saving the lives of mothers and babies regardless of location, race, or economic status. Supporting patients throughout all phases of pregnancy, including the prenatal and postpartum stages, is so important in closing gaps in care."

BabyLiveAdvice partners include March of Dimes, Johnson and Johnson, The National Black Doulas Association, LifeBridge Health Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Huntington Health, AltaMed, among others.

For media queries and BLA partnerships contact David Marmorstein: david@babyliveadvice.com.

About BabyLiveAdvice:

BabyLiveAdvice is a woman and nurse-founded company with the mission to close the care gaps in maternal childcare and reduce maternal and infant morbidity and mortality around the world. BabyLiveAdvice has helped tens of thousands of parents to get one-on-one support and education from a caring provider in their language. Its mission is to help parents and improve the statistics surrounding pregnancy, births, and maternal wellbeing.

Learn more: https://babyliveadvice.com/

RELATED LINKS:

https://vsee.com/

https://vennventures.com/

https://www.synergentl.com/

BabyLiveAdvice, the leading virtual maternal telehealth provider, announced the completion of a $1.1 million seed investment led by Venn Ventures and Synergen Technology Labs. BabyLiveAdvice, founded by CEO Sigi Marmorstein, RN, PHN, MSN, FNP-BC, partners with healthcare providers and health systems to support coordinated, comprehensive prenatal, postpartum, and infant care.

Related link: https://www.babyliveadvice.com/

Innovative Telehealth Company Gives Expectant Mothers and Parents Peace of Mind During COVID-19 Crisis

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /ScoopCloud/ -- No greater concern exists in the current crisis of COVID-19 than for expectant mothers and their loved ones. The problem is two-fold, says BabyLiveAdvice. Women don't want to risk their health by exposing themselves and their unborn or newborn babies to the virus. And, even if they did try to seek outside support during these trying times, an overwhelmed healthcare system cannot meet the need.

Over the next three months, nearly a million babies will be born in the United States. Reliable information for them will remain scarce as inundated prenatal providers working in healthcare facilities with limited protective gear are overburdened and struggling to respond to patients' most basic queries.

The good news is that a Los Angeles-based, woman-owned social enterprise - BabyLiveAdvice - is ready to provide the most accurate, reliable and helpful information to its anxious members as they are going through life happiest event in fear of the unknown. The company provides expectant and new mothers with lactation support and online educational breastfeeding classes.

"Now more than ever we need to support breastfeeding considering it is one of the few reliable preventative health behaviors in this circumstance," says Genevieve Colvin, IBCLC, who is lead lactation consultant and a board member of BabyLiveAdvice.

BabyLiveAdvice partners with healthcare providers and health systems to support coordinated, comprehensive prenatal and postpartum care anywhere, by filling the educational gap for expectant mothers and parents. The end result is reduced complications and better outcomes for mothers and their babies. The company uses a HIPAA-Secure Telehealth platform, offered online through chats, calls or video face-to-face engagements between the mother/parent and a nurse/provider. Complete virtual support is offered from preconception to early childhood.

In addition to one-on-one consultations, BabyLiveAdvice offers peer and professionally led support groups and classes via the web. Programs are designed to bring people together, recognizing the shared emotional experience of pregnancy, motherhood and parenthood.

Most recently, BabyLiveAdvice partnered with three new groups:
* GravidaMom - https://www.gravidamom.com/ - a world-class video course company that also provides information guides;
* Peer Support Solutions - https://www.peersupportsolutions.com/
* Postpartum Support International - https://www.postpartum.net/.

"We want to provide members with a variety of options for peer support and online education," Sigi Marmorstein, founder and CEO, BabyLiveAdvice, says. "Our goal is to decrease isolation and improve the knowledge, health and wellbeing of our members, not just during this global health crisis, but far into the future."

BabyLiveAdvice's program has been piloted extensively, and to date helped thousands of parents to get one-on-one support in their language by a caring provider rather than through pamphlets, blogs, Google searches or articles.

Its mission to help parents and improve the statistics surrounding pregnancy, births and child rearing is working.

Learn more at: https://babyliveadvice.com/

*PHOTO link for media: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/20-0325s2p-marmorstein-300dpi.jpg
Photo Caption: Sigi Marmorstein, founder and CEO, BabyLiveAdvice.

No greater concern exists in the current crisis of COVID-19 than for expectant mothers and their loved ones. The problem is two-fold, says BabyLiveAdvice. Women don't want to risk their health by exposing themselves and their unborn or newborn babies to the virus. And, even if they did try to seek outside support during these trying times, an overwhelmed healthcare system cannot meet the need.

Related link: https://www.babyliveadvice.com/

Nurse Innovator Impacts Moms’ and Babies’ Health in ‘Year of the Nurse and Midwife’

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /ScoopCloud/ -- BabyLiveAdvice, Inc., a Los Angeles-based, woman-owned social enterprise, supports pregnant moms and parents from preconception through early childhood via telehealth, phone and chat. The company's mission is to help one million moms and their babies to be happy and healthy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) designated 2020 - "The Year of the Nurse and Midwife" - bringing women's issues front and center. BabyLiveAdvice is taking heed.

"The U.S. has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the developed world," Sigi Marmorstein, founder and CEO, BabyLiveAdvice, says. "Giving birth in America has become increasingly dangerous, sometimes deadly, especially for mothers who lack access to care."

In fact, the 2019 March of Dimes Report Card revealed that, for the fourth year in a row, more babies in the U.S. (approximately one out of 10) were born too soon, with the rate of pre-term births increasing steadily every year. (*Note 1.)

"We have 135 moms a week who die or are injured during childbirth or within weeks of giving birth," Marmorstein says. "There are two babies who die every hour. It's not talked about and prevention is lacking."

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists projects that there will be a shortage of nearly 9,000 obstetricians and gynecologists by 2020, which will grow to a shortage of approximately 22,000 by 2050. This shortage is creating "maternal deserts," where 5 million women have no access to obstetricians.

"Some women have to travel five to six hours for care or even go out of state," Marmorstein says.

Marmorstein, a nurse innovator and telehealth expert with 22 years of clinical experience, believes she has a technological solution to help with this crisis. In 2018, she self-funded BabyLiveAdvice, with support of colleagues such as Milton Chen, CEO of Vsee, the HIPAA-secure platform used by BabyLiveAdvice, who support her vision.

Prior to the company's launch, extensive research and pilots showed that pregnant women and new parents are under-informed or misinformed about their pregnancy, childbirth options, breastfeeding and infant care. They lack education and have unequal healthcare access. Additionally, shorter appointment times, transportation barriers and early discharge from the hospital just serve to widen the care gap.

The pilot study went on to demonstrate that when moms are supported, educated, monitored, empowered and coached throughout their pregnancies and postpartum period they have better birth outcomes and fewer complications than moms who did not receive such help.

"We're a group of nurses and midwives who are mothers. We're from diverse cultural and clinical backgrounds and work from home caring for our children while using our skills to support and help others," Elaine Kopinga, lead nurse midwife at BabyLiveAdvice, says.

BabyLiveAdvice gives mothers/parents virtual access to advice and support from the comfort of their home. They can ask questions and get answers right away.

"From pre-conception through the baby's age of four, women have access to a personal team of professionals and it doesn't cost thousands of dollars," Lovell Valencia, clinician at BabyLiveAdvice, says.

BabyLiveAdvice fills a critical gap in the current health system. It's a budget-friendly solution and insurance companies, employers, hospitals, physicians and non-profit organizations are already collaborating because it's easy to implement. Advice staff helps physicians to manage large panels of patients, while effectively reducing physician burnout, improving care access and reducing overall costs.

"We have our eyes and ears on moms and babies and are more effective than a traditional nurse call line in reducing ER visits and calls to physicians. We improve timely escalation and emergent conditions, and reduce the overall risk of care," Marmorstein says.

While maternal deaths are not a subject many like to talk about, BabyLiveAdvice believes 2020 is the year to begin the conversation, promote awareness and produce real results that lead to positive change. They've already made a difference, but there's more to be done.

About BabyLiveAdvice

BabyLiveAdvice supports and partners with providers, employers, insurance companies and other organizations, nationally and internationally. It works to reduce maternal and infant morbidity and mortality by providing virtual prenatal/postnatal education, monitoring of chronic conditions (i.e., diabetes and hypertension), smoking and substance abuse cessation, parental nutrition and mental health screening and support.

For more information, visit: https://www.babyliveadvice.com/

*NOTE 1 (PDF): https://www.marchofdimes.org/materials/MOD2019_REPORT_CARD_and_POLICY_ACTIONS_BOOKLETv72.pdf

BabyLiveAdvice, Inc., a Los Angeles-based, woman-owned social enterprise, supports pregnant moms and parents from preconception through early childhood via telehealth, phone and chat. The company's mission is to help one million moms and their babies to be happy and healthy.

Related link: https://www.babyliveadvice.com/