The 2011 audience voted Maternova the favorite in the 5 minute pitches for social enterprise business ideas and the LOHAS Prize.  Turns out they picked well!!  The social enterprise went on the be a part of the MassChallenge summer business accelerator and to be chosen this spring as 'one of th 50 best ideas for women' globally by the esteemed Women Deliver competition!

But Maternova is not about winning prizes, unless it helps us meet our mission:  getting innovations to the field to more rapidly save the lives of mothers and newborns.  We began last summer with a single product offering:  an obstetric backpack with a few carefully selected life-saving tools, including a solar powered headlamp and a rotary mobile phone charger as well as the lowest cost hemoglobinometer on the market.

We have now moved, in response to customer suggetions, to carry 11 products and soon will expand from 11 to 20 and then 30 products.  The thing about childbirth in a low-resource setting, is that it is unpredictable.  The majority of births will be natural, complication-free events.  But a subset of births will be terribly complicated--we just don't know which ones.  Fortunately, a growing number of scientists, engineers, physicians and enterpreneurs are working on faster, better and cheaper ways to save lives.  Our pioneering innovation index makes it easy for those in the field to stay tuned to these innovations--and our marketplace makes it easy to purchase the technologies when they become available.

This little company has come a long way though we are on the lookout for strategic partners who can help us move to the next level!