Categories: Breastfeeding, Pregnancy, Pumping
August 29, 2025
Last updated on August 29, 2025
Every expecting parent deserves a joyful pregnancy journey. However, too many Black and brown women and birthing people are robbed of this joy, instead often facing the kind of bias that leads to disproportionate risks.
In the U.S., Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, and these outcomes aren’t tied to income, education, or location. It’s a painful reality shaped by medical racism, implicit bias, and lack of culturally competent care. From being unheard during doctor appointments, to pain levels being dismissed during delivery, to experiencing other forms of biased treatment, the disparities in maternal healthcare are real and dangerous. These issues are not just statistics; they are lived experiences, and they require urgent, community-driven solutions.
That’s where Irth™ comes in.
Irth (as in “birth” but without the “b” for bias) is a groundbreaking, non-profit, digital platform where Black and brown women and birthing people can find and leave reviews of OB/GYNs, birthing hospitals, and pediatricians. Think of Irth as a “Yelp” for Black maternal health but community-powered and mission-driven.
“I created Irth because I wish I had it when I was giving birth,” says founder Kimberly Seals Allers, an internationally recognized maternal health advocate, former senior editor at Essence magazine, and author of The Big Letdown–How Medicine, Big Business & Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding (St. Martins Press). “I went to a hospital that was very highly rated on every media list, but none of those sources considered how I would be treated as a Black woman who was, at the time, unmarried, and in graduate school with basic health insurance. Instead of the joy of being a first-time mom, I walked out feeling disrespected, dismissed, and disgusted. I deserved better.”
Now, Irth works to improve the maternal healthcare system for all. On the back end, Irth’s anonymized reviews are turned into robust patient experience data to work directly with hospitals, payers, and providers to help them provide more respectful and equitable care. Irth’s innovative Birth Without Bias™ Hospital Improvement Program is now active in eight hospitals across six states including New York, California, and Minnesota.
“We want every mama and birthing person to get the five-star birth experience they deserve regardless of race, ethnicity, language proficiency, marital status, or insurance type. And we’re driving more accountability and transparency within health systems,” adds Seals Allers, who is also a co-founder of Black Breastfeeding Week.
Users can leave reviews of prenatal appointments, birthing experiences, postpartum visits, and pediatric appointments up until the baby’s first birthday. Irth’ Crown Rewards program allows users to earn points for leaving reviews, which can be redeemed for discounts and for cash in 15 cities. Irth’s new Crown Community is an in-app birthworker-led digital village, where parents can ask questions and get answers from other parents and birth professionals.
The birthing track asks questions about the doctors, nurses, and lactation consultants in the experience. “Hospitals are ground zero for lactation support, and those early interactions can impact breastfeeding duration,” notes Seals Allers.
Every voice matters. If you’re a Black or brown birthing person, share your experience on Irth. Your review could change someone’s birth story — or even save a life.
Irth is a non-profit, grant-funded project of Narrative Nation Inc., a New York City-based technology and media non-profit that creates narrative-centered digital & media products to address racial disparities in maternal and infant health. Narrative Nation also produces Birthright, a podcast showcasing joyful Black birthing stories to disrupt the doom and gloom narrative common in mainstream media coverage of Black maternal health. Narrative Nation is the fiscal sponsor for Black Breastfeeding Week, held annually August 25-31, the only national awareness campaign focused on optimal infant feeding in the Black community. The 2025 theme for BBW, now in its 14th year, is Boots on the Ground.
You can learn more and explore Irth’s mission at irthapp.org.
Follow @theIrthApp and @iamKSealsAllers on Instagram, Facebook, & X.
This guest blog was contributed by Irth™, a nonprofit app working to improve birth and breastfeeding experiences for Black and brown families.