Pregnancy Companion
A Sponsor Overview
A clinically grounded, multilingual maternal-health platform closing the global divide in prenatal, newborn, and bereavement care — founded and authored by a single, accountable physician.
The Opportunity
A trusted voice for every pregnancy, in every language, everywhere
Maternal and perinatal mortality remain among the most persistent and preventable failures in global health. The gaps are widest exactly where reliable information is scarcest — for vulnerable, minority, and low-income families who often do not know where, or when, to seek care. Maternl is built to close that gap.
Maternl is an original, evidence-based platform combining trusted pregnancy, postpartum, and newborn guidance with geographic, location-aware support — so a mother in any country can improve her understanding of her pregnancy and find a clear path to care. It is the successor to HYGEIA, one of the internet’s most enduring programs of compassion for pregnancy and newborn loss, now reimagined for a global audience through AI and natural-language technology.
- 30,000+HYGEIA members served since 1995
- 50+ yrsFounder clinical practice in OB/GYN
- GlobalLocation-aware care in any country
Why Now
The convergence of unmet need and enabling technology
Advances in AI and natural-language processing now make it possible to deliver clinically vetted, plain-language guidance — instantly, at near-zero marginal cost, and in a mother’s own language. Maternl pairs that reach with something algorithms cannot manufacture: the credibility of a single, named physician who has spent a career caring for pregnant women and their families. That combination of scale and trust is difficult to replicate and central to the platform’s defensibility.
Why Maternl Is Different
Purpose-built, physician-authored, and globally accessible
Most pregnancy apps are built by companies optimizing for engagement, advertising, or data collection. Maternl was conceived and authored by one obstetrician, and every design decision reflects clinical accountability rather than commercial incentive.
- One physician, one accountable author
- Unlike most commercial apps with no clear clinical owner, users always know who is responsible for Maternl, their background, and their philosophy of care.
- Evidence-based by design
- Content is derived from peer-reviewed journals, papers, recognized organizations, and academic medical centers — never anonymous individuals. AI engines always generate references that can be independently investigated.
- Multilingual and global-first
- Plain-language answers delivered in multiple languages, engineered for real-world use across countries, cultures, and low-bandwidth settings — reaching families conventional platforms leave behind.
- Location-aware access to care
- Geolocation of prenatal and newborn care centers worldwide turns information into action, guiding mothers who do not know where to go.
- Safety-focused triage
- Purpose-built architecture separates urgent warning signs and mental-health concerns from routine questions — educational, never diagnostic, and never a substitute for a clinician.
- A legacy of compassion for loss
- Anchored by the award-winning HYGEIA program for miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal loss — a dimension of care almost no competitor addresses.
Founder & Track Record
A career devoted to maternal health and health equity
Michael R. Berman, MD, MBI, FACOG is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and academic professor whose life’s work has been bridging the digital divide and the disparities in access to care for the world’s most vulnerable families. Maternl is the culmination of that career.
Selected accomplishments
- Founded HYGEIA (1995) — one of the earliest internet programs devoted to pregnancy and neonatal loss, and the only site of its kind created and moderated entirely by an OB/GYN; grew to 30,000+ members.
- Recognized in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The San Francisco Chronicle, and featured by Katie Couric (NBC Today) and Lisa Birnbach (CBS Early Show).
- Finalist, The Stockholm Challenge International IT Competition (2001, 2002); GetCare presented to the Society for the Internet in Medicine (Geneva 2003; Prague 2005).
- Founding member, International Stillbirth Alliance; author of Parenthood Lost: Healing the Pain After Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Neonatal Death.
- Master’s in Biomedical Informatics, Oregon Health & Science University — capstone on Personal Health Records for Underserved Communities.
- Clinical Professor, Yale School of Medicine; Professor & Associate Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Medical Director, Labor & Delivery, and Chief Patient Safety Officer, Mount Sinai Beth Israel.
- United Hospital Foundation Award for Quality and Patient Safety; NYSPQC Obstetrical Improvement Project fellowship; Academy for Medicine and the Humanities, Icahn School of Medicine.
From HYGEIA to Maternl
HYGEIA became the Hygeia Foundation, Inc., an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) that endures today as Hope After Loss, with its own boards and continuing mission. Maternl now carries that vision forward — extending a proven model of trust and compassion into a scalable, multilingual, AI-enabled platform for maternal and newborn health worldwide.
The Moat: Trust & Privacy
Trust is the product — and the durable advantage
In health, trust is not a feature — it is the entire foundation of adoption and outcomes. Maternl is engineered around it in ways commercial competitors structurally cannot match.
Privacy by design. Maternl requests no identifiers. Registration is never required to use any program, and no identified data is stored. A mother may choose to share her name, email, or personal information — entirely at her own will — but nothing is demanded of her. In an era of data-hungry health apps, this is a powerful trust and brand differentiator.
In the founder’s words
“The embryo of trust begins at the first meeting between doctor and patient. When patients come to us for care, they are vulnerable, needy, and many times frightened. They are seeking professional, high-quality, and ‘human’ caring. Making them feel comfortable, safe, hopeful, and confident with our care — and in our care — will begin the trust required for healing.”
— Michael R. Berman, MD, on the principles built into Maternl
Partner with Maternl
An invitation to investors and corporate sponsors
Maternl seeks mission-aligned capital and corporate sponsorship to scale a platform that is already clinically proven in spirit and technically ready to reach a global audience. Your partnership funds measurable impact on maternal and infant survival — and associates your brand with one of the most trusted names in maternal health.
For investors
- A defensible, physician-authored brand in a large, underserved global market.
- AI-enabled delivery with near-zero marginal cost and multilingual scalability.
- Proprietary modules beyond the core platform, staged for future rollout.
- A proven founder with a 30-year track record of building enduring programs.
For corporate sponsors
- Authentic alignment with health equity and maternal-health impact.
- Association with a privacy-first, evidence-based, physician-led platform.
- Global, multilingual reach into communities brands rarely touch credibly.
- A meaningful CSR and ESG story grounded in real clinical outcomes.
Let’s build the trusted maternal-health platform the world still lacks.
Michael R. Berman, MD, MBI, FACOG — Founder & President
Important notice. Maternl and its modules are for educational use only — not medical advice. Responses are AI-generated and may be incomplete or inaccurate. Maternl does not provide diagnosis or treatment, and use does not create a doctor–patient relationship. Always consult your OB/GYN, midwife, or pediatrician for personal medical guidance. In an emergency, call 911.