Perinatal mental health services in the UK are severely stretched and many mothers who fall below the clinical threshold receive no support at all.
Project Team: Mari-Carmen, founder of The Fit Mama Way & Matresa
The Opportunity
An estimated1 in 5 women experience mental health problems associated with pregnancy and childbirth, yet perinatal mental health services in the UK are severely stretched and many mothers who fall below the clinical threshold receive no support at all.
Founder, Mari-Carmen, is a paediatric intensive care nurse turned entrepreneur. Drawing on her clinical background, personal experience of traumatic birth and inadequate postnatal support, and years of working with mothers, she identified a critical gap; no single platform supports mothers comprehensively from conception through to the first years of parenthood.
What laid the groundwork for this was Mari-Carmen’s understanding of the need to test and develop. The Fit Mama Way was her first health tech venture, allowing Mari-Carmen to test a digital solution, to learn, and to develop, for what has since become Matresa – a clinical grade maternal health platform now on the cusp of launching.
The Project
The Fit Mama Way had already established an online fitness and wellness offering for mothers. The New Innovators Award provided the opportunity to take a decisive step forward, to develop and test a digital platform; the Empowering Mums programme on the FIT MAMA app. This would offer week-by-week personalised guidance, expert video content, and an AI-powered diagnostic tool to tailor support to each stage of a mother's journey.
Creative content and programme architecture would sit within a maternal health platform alongside personalisation tailored to individuals. Funding would also allow the ability to test commercialisation routes; both B2C and B2B to understand where the platform could have impact and viability.
The Impact & Proof of Concept
· The Empowering Mums programme was successfully delivered to 150 paying customers and proved market appetite for a digital maternal health offering.
· Insight gathered during the project revealed that the problem was significantly larger than a fitness-focused app could address.
· A strategic pivot brought about Matresa.
· The development process validated a commercialisation model, with a strong opportunity in supporting organisations to retain female talent around maternity leave and helping pregnant mothers remain engaged and supported as they return to work.
· The New Innovators Award provided funding to develop the platform’s first iteration of creative content and programme infrastructure.
· The co-working space at 1 Mill Street in Leamington Spa, also played an important role providing a supportive eco-system and peer network of fellow entrepreneurs; something Mari-Carmen has described as essential during challenging times of building an innovative business.
Hard-Won Wisdom
When reflecting on her experience, Mari-Carmen had clear guidance for other creative and tech businesses considering similar opportunities:
From Fit Mama to Matresa
Since the completionof the New Innovators Award project, Mari-Carmen has gone on to:
· Wind down Fit Mama and launch Matresa; a clinical grade maternal health app.
· Close the first round of pre-seed investment, backed by venture capital and angel investors, to fund platform development.
· Formalise a research partnership with the University of Warwick, with key academics joining Matresa’s Medical Advisory Board and contributing to a feasibility study of over 400 women.
· Progress towards Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) classification, with ambitions for Matresa to be able to clinically screen and support diagnosis of postnatal depression.
· Secure conversations with major corporate clients ahead of the platform’s launch, targeting a B2B model.
· Begin exploratory discussions with an NHS trust about a pilot programme; a significant step towards Mari-Carmen’s longer-term ambition to get Matresa into national healthcare pathways.
