Nour Emam is a social media savvy doula, educator, and women’s health advocate with one goal: to educate women about reproductive health in a safe space that provides them with reliable information that will empower, debunk, and raise awareness of related mental health issues.
Out of this mission, Mother Being was born, a Cairo-based online platform that offers courses and content to educate Arabic-speaking women about their bodies on topics such as the menstrual cycle, fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, aftercare and sex education.
The social media videos and online courses on Mother Being’s platform are provided in a conversational, approachable, entertaining and sometimes humorous way, aiming to clear up misunderstandings, break stigmatization, help women understand their medical rights to communicate effectively with their doctors and to lower the price of unnecessary or forced Caesarean sections and end obstetric violence.
“The passion that drives us is to make reproductive and sexual health education very accessible and shameless for Arab or Arabic-speaking women,” says Ms. Emam.
FemTech start-ups that sit at the interface between technology and women’s health are given more opportunities. According to Emergen Research, the global women-centric technology market is projected to reach $ 60 billion in 2027, more than tripling from $ 18.75 billion in 2019. The women’s health technology market is also attracting more government and investment private sector, particularly in areas such as fertility, pregnancy, egg freezing, feminine hygiene products, and medical diagnostic equipment.
“It is definitely an underserved industry, especially in the Mena region, but it looks very promising for existing FemTech companies like us and new ones emerging in the years to come,” says Ms. Emam.
In January 2020, Ms. Emam set up Mother Being as an Instagram account to initially promote her services as a doula. But she quickly expanded the platform when she received a barrage of questions from younger women seeking a better understanding of the menstrual cycle and other issues.
The account’s following exploded amid the MeToo movement in Egypt, which reignited outrage over sexual violence against women and prompted numerous people who have been sexually molested to break their silence and share their experiences online.
After training to be a doula, Ms. Emam also trained as a sexual health teacher as part of the expansion of her business.
“It’s a continuum, you can’t fight for birthrights and ignore the fact that most women have been subjected to sexual violence or female genital mutilation (FGM), and we have to talk across that continuum,” she says.
Mother Being also addresses the mental health problems that can arise from complications and misunderstandings in reproductive and sexual health.
“We don’t just deliver biological education, our work changes the mindset and we focus on the psychological aspect of physical problems,” says Ms. Emam. “We’re talking about a 360-degree approach.”
One such critical area of support is for women who have undergone genital mutilation. While anti-practice awareness campaigns are important, the focus needs to shift to survivors of FGM as well, says Ms. Emam.
“Nobody speaks to women who have already been through it, to hold their hand to say, ‘Life is not over, there is help, there is reconstruction surgery, there is therapy,'” says Ms. Emam . “This is our job. We always focus on women who have experienced it and how we can help them with it.”
For those in need of more psychological support, Mother Being also provides references for more specialized support.
The discussions motherhood evokes are relevant because women’s reproductive health has long been a taboo subject, often shrouded in mystery or shame. So the videos and courses help eliminate misinformation and harmful practices, she says.
Because women’s reproductive health concerns are often marginalized, Mother Being highlights prevalent issues like the gender pain gap, where health care providers sometimes minimize women’s pain, which in turn takes longer to diagnose, says Ms. Imam .
Not only do we deliver biological education, our work changes the mindset and we focus on the psychological aspect of physical problems … We are talking about a 360 degree approach
Nour Emam, founder of Cairo-based Mother Being
“We solve this problem by giving women the information they need to stand up for themselves,” she says. “We bring the power back to where it should be, the patient has the power to ask questions.”
Mother Being offers three live online childbirth courses for £ 1,200 Egyptian ($ 76), menstrual cycles (£ 600), and a culture-sensitive course in women-centered sex education (£ 800).
“It’s the kind of information we don’t get in school or in the household,” says Ms. Emam. “These women, even if they are 30 years old, are overwhelmed by this information.”
The main target audience, Ms. Emam said, is women ages 18 to 35, but plans are to add content to menopause, an underserved area of reproductive health, to cover the entire cycle from menstruation to menopause.
Going forward, she plans to broadcast live classes to recorded format and expand them to create Mena’s “go-to” school in reproductive health with new courses and medical specialists.
The start-up currently has 1.4 million users on Instagram and TikTok, 2,000 pay for courses, 30 percent of whom are regular customers.
Demand for the courses is robust, thanks in part to Ms. Emam’s approach of using humor to normalize difficult topics. It recorded a 17 percent increase in user base this year from the previous month and an average revenue increase of 44 percent from the previous month.
It also generates income through the paid courses and paid partnerships with pharmaceutical and wellness companies promoting their products on social media through Mother Being’s awareness campaigns. Brand loyalty accounts for around 50 percent of monthly sales.
The ambitious entrepreneur plans to grow the business further by creating an app and website that will allow users to access free content, purchase on-demand courses, and “join a community of curious learners,” says Ms. Emam. To do this, she will hire more talent, including in the areas of marketing and business development.
The start-up will also step up its marketing in Saudi Arabia – its second largest market after Egypt – the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
Finally, to better serve women, Mother Being will also launch its own women’s health and wellbeing products.
Ms. Emam hopes to meet these growth targets by 2022 or even sooner if she secures the right investments.
Mother Being will eventually need up to $ 500,000 in total funding to convert the business, but has not yet secured the money and is looking for grants or donors rather than large investments, says Ms. Emam.
Mother Being is at the “apex” of a shift to change the male-dominated narrative about women’s reproductive health, she says.
“We know we are at a very good point where we tick all the right boxes: affecting women’s health, the FemTech industry of global concern, we are creating noticeable change and I see that when we meet people or they see on the street. ” with the feedback we get every month and the courses sold, “she says.
1. What other successful start-up would you have wished for?
I’m totally looking up to KindBody in the US and hope to try something similar in the Mena region.
2. What is your next big dream?
I would like to implement comprehensive doula training and women-centered training at medical and nursing schools that make such patient-centered nursing training compulsory for health professionals. I would also like to run nationwide sex education courses for FGM victims and make sustainable menstrual products available to the Mena market.
3. What new skills did you learn when you founded your start-up?
Leading a team, running a company (in terms of finance, strategy, planning), feeling comfortable in a leadership position, learning to be disappointed and feeling defeated, and then using it to propel me forward, to keep going, realizing that it’s okay to ask for help and that I can’t do anything.
4. How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected your company?
Covid-19 was the reason we were successful and why we are where we are (luckily). People were on the phone at home a lot and it was the perfect time to shine on social media and market the business. It was a challenge, but it also worked in our favor.
5. What is the importance of reproductive / sexual health services during this pandemic?
People are more aware of their rights and have “awakened” and are greedily looking for information on the Internet. At a time when people were isolated and locked in their homes, social media and online education were a great place to network and learn together.
6. What’s next for the mother being?
We are building the Mena Region’s Reproductive & Sexual Health School – a full-fledged technology platform where Arabic-speaking people can learn from health professionals and educators, interact with like-minded people, ask questions, and buy the best products on the market for their reproductive and sexual health needs .
I also believe that we have made tangible changes in the medical sector by pushing for women-centered care and specific courses in the medical school or nursing school, and working with the Ministry of Health to hopefully change some guidelines on obstetric and gynecological violence. Doctors should be held accountable and women should be heard and believed.
8. What changes in healthcare should patients expect?
Women are becoming more conscious and physically literate, which is reflected in how doctors can work. Women are no longer satisfied with what they have had to do over the years and either call doctors or switch to other doctors, which in turn forces doctors to rethink. Hope we see cesarean section rates cut, STDs cut through sex education, but also safe doctors to go to if you need to get checked out.
COMPANY PROFILE
Company Name / Start Date: Mother Being / Founded in January 2020 and incorporated in February 2021
Founder: Nour Emam
Headquarters: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FemTech, women’s health
Size: (employees / turnover) Six employees
Investment phase: pre-seed phase
Investors: Self-financed
Updated: October 3, 2021, 5:00 a.m.
source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/10/03/mother-being-destigmatises-reproductive-health-to-empower-women/
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