Racism in America exists in many forms; income inequality, bias in home loans, racial profiling during traffic stops and more. One area of racism that is often overlooked by mainstream media is women of color and pregnancy complications. An article recently published on CDC.gov states, “Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women. Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias.” The question is, who can black women turn to in order to feel safe when expecting. The pregnancy companion app Wolomi has arrived to aid women of color and their families on the journey to a healthy delivery.
"My name is Layo George, I am the founder of Wolomi. Wolomi is maternal health platform that is created by a nurse of color. So I am a nurse, and for women of color, specifically, supporting us to own our pregnancy journey, and pregnancy and motherhood journey, find joy and get better outcomes."
Layo’s Journey starts with concerns for her own pregnancy.
"I started to look at the stats. So when it was time to have my child already kind of had a plan of what I wanted to do. First, it started from wanting to have a better experience. And then as I started to do research in grad school, I started to look at the outcomes that wow, it's really bad. And then it just kind of turns to I want to have a good experience and I don't want to die, you know."
The Wolomi founder soon learned no matter how much money you make or how good your insurance is, it doesn’t guarantee the perfect pregnancy experience.
"Here we are in in the DC area where I grew up. And we have one of the highest paid income, community of color. And we and our, our pregnancy journey in the hospital looks sort of crappy. And and when you when I go to a small town in, in Wisconsin, they're getting a really good service. Even though when you look at the income, it's not as high."
Layo has developed a system to educate women on how to maneuver throughout their pregnancy and ultimately remind them that they are not in this alone. LG - For example, we have something called a weekly pregnancy moment. That's written by a midwife, midwife of color, who it's, it's sort of divided into three area. One is what's going on with your body? The second is, what should you be talking to your provider about because we know, there's so many nuances with us, when it comes to our provider, like making sure that we are having those conversations with that provider? And then how do you navigate as a woman of color. You can visit wolomi.com to learn more and download the app for apple or android.