On September 11, 2025, the landscape of maternal health in the United States took a significant step forward when Lōvu Health, a digital maternal health platform, announced it had secured $8 million (€7.3 million) in Series A funding. The round, led by SJF Ventures and joined by a coalition of investment partners including Rogue Women’s Fund, Symphonic Capital, Emmeline Ventures, Magella Ventures, Oakwood Circle Ventures, Sand Hill Angels, Swizzle Ventures, Terrasys, Stand Together Ventures, and Alumni Ventures, is set to fuel the expansion of Lōvu’s AI-powered remote patient monitoring and care navigation services from conception through the postpartum period. According to Femtech Insider, this marks a critical investment in a sector where the stakes could not be higher: despite an annual spend of approximately $126 billion on pregnancy and postpartum care, the United States ranks just 64th globally in maternal mortality rates, with over 80% of maternal deaths considered preventable.
The need for innovation in maternal care is glaring. Nearly half of women in the U.S.—49%, to be exact—forego prenatal or postnatal care, often deterred by high costs and barriers to access. Lōvu Health’s approach harnesses artificial intelligence to bridge these gaps, offering a dynamic dashboard that monitors fetal heart rate, maternal blood pressure, weight, heart rate, and mental health assessments. The platform’s technology alerts clinicians to changes in a mother’s health status in real time, aiming to catch complications early and intervene before they escalate.
Noel Pugh, co-founder and CEO of Lōvu Health, underscored the urgency of the mission: “Our current one-size-fits-all maternal care model is failing moms and babies. Every expectant mother and her baby deserve equitable access to precision care guided by innovative technology and evidence-based insights.”
But Lōvu’s ambitions don’t stop at monitoring. The platform connects patients to a curated marketplace of over 50 third-party digital vendors, providing specialty services such as doula support, lactation consulting, and mental health resources. This network aims to reduce the administrative burden on obstetricians, create new revenue streams, and—perhaps most critically—make specialty care accessible even in the so-called ‘maternal care deserts’ where one in three U.S. counties lack local obstetricians. The system is designed to serve all patients, regardless of insurance status, including the uninsured, Medicaid recipients, and those with commercial insurance.
Clinical outcomes data, as reported by Femtech Insider, shows promising results: the platform enabled earlier intervention for preeclampsia in 6% of mothers compared to traditional care models, detected depression and anxiety in about 30% of its clinical population, and identified chronic hypertension in 57% of mothers with the condition who used the platform. “The existing maternal care model in the United States leads to significant care gaps, especially because we do a poor job adequately identifying risk for pregnancies where additional care is needed,” explained Dr. Santosh Pandipati, co-founder and Chief Health Officer at Lōvu Health.
The new funding will support the launch of three AI agents, further automation, system integrations, and the expansion of Lōvu’s team. Notably, the marketplace can reduce wait times for mental health providers by as much as four months—a crucial improvement for pregnant and postpartum women struggling with anxiety, depression, or other mental health challenges.
While technology-driven solutions like Lōvu Health are making headlines, other innovative models are also reshaping maternal care in the U.S. On September 10, 2025, the Rutgers School of Public Health published an evaluation of CenteringPregnancy, a group prenatal care model that combines education and individual health assessments in group settings for women at similar stages of pregnancy. According to Science X, the evaluation found that CenteringPregnancy fosters vital social ties among expectant parents and builds greater trust between healthcare providers and patients. The Burke Foundation is investing to expand this model throughout New Jersey, focusing on reducing maternal health inequities and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in outcomes.
The Rutgers evaluation was comprehensive, incorporating observations of group sessions, focus groups, patient surveys, provider interviews, and an analysis of emergency medical record data across multiple New Jersey sites. The findings were clear: patients completing five or more CenteringPregnancy sessions had higher rates of breastfeeding and postpartum visits than those attending fewer sessions. Healthcare providers and staff reported higher job satisfaction and reduced burnout, a rare win-win in a field often plagued by stress and turnover. “Our team of faculty, staff and community researchers had the opportunity to gather data from many perspectives and found overwhelmingly that group prenatal care has benefits for patients as well as for health care providers and staff,” said Leslie M. Kantor, principal investigator of the evaluation and chair of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at Rutgers.
Yet, even highly regarded models like CenteringPregnancy face hurdles. The Rutgers report highlighted persistent challenges to scaling this approach, including current reimbursement rates, provider and staff turnover, and space constraints. Nevertheless, the integration of community researchers—Black mothers from New Jersey who received specialized research training—ensured that diverse voices were heard and that the evaluation reflected the lived experiences of those most affected by maternal health inequities.
Meanwhile, another front in the fight for better maternal health is being advanced by the March of Dimes and the CVS Health Foundation. On September 10, 2025, they announced the second cohort of the Equitable Access to Doula Care Project, a $4 million, five-year collaboration designed to expand awareness of and access to doula services while growing and supporting the doula workforce nationwide. According to PR Newswire, millions of American women still lack access to quality maternity care during and after pregnancy, which increases the risk of complications for both mothers and babies. A recent March of Dimes/Harris Poll study revealed that nearly half of Americans have never even heard of a doula, despite evidence that doulas can reduce complications, lower stress, and increase breastfeeding rates.
This initiative brings together community-based teams in East Orange, NJ; Riverside, CA; Buffalo, NY; and Oxnard, CA, each partnering with local hospitals to expand doula care. The project provides professional education, doula training, consumer education resources, community grants, technical assistance, and marketing and evaluation support. These resources are designed to help each site advance and sustain equitable doula care in their communities. Cindy Rahman, President and CEO of March of Dimes, summed up the project’s vision: “Every birthing person should feel seen, heard, and supported through their pregnancy journey, and that’s exactly what doulas provide. Their presence helps create a more respectful, positive pregnancy experience and leads to better outcomes for moms and babies.”
Collectively, these efforts—spanning technology, community-based care, and innovative provider models—illustrate a growing recognition that the U.S. cannot continue with business as usual when it comes to maternal health. As Perry Clarkson, Partner at SJF Ventures, remarked, “SJF has had a long-standing interest in maternal health and Lōvu has stood out to us for years as we see the company’s care extension of the obstetrician’s office plus a novel marketplace of partnered specialty solutions.”
With new funding, research, and community initiatives converging, there’s cautious optimism that the patchwork of maternal care in the United States is finally being stitched into something stronger, smarter, and—most importantly—more equitable for every mother and baby.
