THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM OUR SUMMER CROWNED MOTHERHOOD EDITION

Melissa Hanna grew up watching her mother advocate for her patients every day. 

 “I saw firsthand what happens when the system gets it wrong,” she says. Her mother was a registered nurse for over 40 years.  “For example, when a mom’s concerns get dismissed, when there’s no one to follow up, or when a warning sign goes unnoticed because the care stopped as soon as she left the hospital.”

Those early lessons became the foundation for Hanna’s life’s work.

Today, she is a doula, mother, and CEO and co-founder of Mahmee, a Los Angeles-based, digital first maternal and child healthcare resource. Pronounced ‘mom-me’, the name means nurturing care for the caregiver and a nod to motherhood.  Hanna founded Mahmee with her mother, labor and delivery nurse and lactation consultant, Linda Hanna, as an effort to digitalize postpartum solutions. 

  Before going into maternal health, Hanna worked as an operations and strategy consultant to startups in healthcare, education, digital media and consumer goods.  

Unlike traditional healthcare systems where services end with discharge paperwork, Mahmee follows families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum with an integrated care team that offers personalized virtual and physical doula, lactation and postpartum care. 

For Hanna, this work carries even greater urgency because of the maternal health disparities facing Black women.

“Black mothers are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white mothers because of a system that has never been designed to truly see them, hear them, or advocate for them. I believe that Mahmee can help change that.”

Check out the full feature is in our Crowned Motherhood edition!

Click here to place your order!