Despite selecting a highly rated hospital to give birth, Kimberly Seals Allers’ experience wasn’t as she hoped.

“All the standard care practices I read about, I had to fight to receive,” Allers said. “I needed to understand why.”

Motherhood inspired Allers to create Irth, dropping the “B” in birth to remove bias in reproductive care. Irth is a Yelp-like app for Black patients to share experiences with maternal healthcare providers nationwide.

Birthing people, partners, doulas, and midwives can submit reviews about prenatal, postpartum, and infant pediatric care. The data is anonymized to inform Irth’s Hospital Improvement Program to promote trust, transparency, patient experiences, and birth outcomes. The program has eight hospital partners in six states and Irth Ambassadors in 15 cities, which Irth supports with stipends, therapists, and mentoring.

“Hospitals aren’t getting enough patient experience data to effectively improve, and when the Black community has a trusted space, they say a lot,” Allers said.

Irth is preparing to publish a city-specific hospital report and launch an in-app community hub featuring access to doula helplines and supports.

“We want hospitals to say they are on Irth’s list of the best places for Black people to give birth and here’s why,” Allers said.