The CDC has said that over 80% of childbirth-related deaths in the US are preventable, and Black women are three times more likely to die than white women.

At the Civic Health Forum, Irth founder Kimberly Seals Allers shared that the problem isn't a lack of knowledge, it's that warning signals like dismissiveness, bias, and lack of consent surface only after tragedy through maternal mortality review committees.

Irth, a community-powered platform where Black and brown families find and leave anonymous reviews of OBGYNs, hospitals, and pediatricians, captures those signals early. The reviews become patient experience data for hospitals and payers to identify patterns before they turn into harm. Irth's Birth Without Bias quality improvement program is now active in nine hospitals, including Cedars-Sinai and Hennepin Healthcare, reaching up to 20,000 birthing families a year, with reviews spanning 46 states. The organization is seeking health system, payer, and provider partners, along with funders who value upstream, lived-experience data.