Black Parents Invited to Call 855-450-IRTH to Leave a Doctor or Hospital Review for New Yelp-like App to Address Racism and Bias in Maternity Care
Nationwide — On Friday, June 25th, influencers, celebrities, and advocates will answer calls to 800-450-IRTH from noon to 8pm for the first national telethon to capture Black birthing and pediatric experiences of care. Expecting and new parents of color who have given birth in the past two years are invited to call 855-450-IRTH and leave a review of their Ob/Gyn, birthing hospital or pediatrician appointments as part of a nationwide effort to create public accountability in the medical system for Black maternal and infant care.Actress Angela Lewis of Snowfall on FX, award-winning civil rights attorney and talk show host Areva Martin Esq., Charles Johnson of 4Kira4Moms, celebrity doula and founder of MamaGlow, Latham Thomas, and health and wellness guru, Coach Gessie, are among the over 30 celebrity and influencer guests donating time to take calls for the cause.
The event will also feature special video appearances by Tonya Lewis Lee, Christy Turlington Burns, and Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter. Callers who leave reviews will be entered to win cash and prizes!
The reviews from the “Irth A Thon” will be used for a new Yelp-like app called, Irth, as in birth but without the b for bias. Irth allows Black and brown people who are expecting or new parents to find and leave reviews of their prenatal, birthing and pediatric experiences of care, up to the baby’s first birthday. Users can search for reviews by doctor and hospital name and by city, state or zip code to see if other Black parents have recommended a provider.
On the back end, Irth turns the qualitative reviews into quantitative data, identifying hospitals and providers who are doing well and providing real-time, patient-reported insights to help improve those with poor reviews.
“Irth is a powerful digital platform to leverage our consumer power to push for transparency, accountability, and systemic change in the medical system and to generate up to date, never-seen-before data directly from Black and brown parents for hospitals to do more than just take an anti-bias training and tick the box,” says founder, Kimberly Seals Allers. “But we only have strength in numbers, we need everyone to leave reviews so we can inform our community on where we are being treated respectfully and where we are not.”
According to the CDC, Black women are 243% more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes. Racism and bias in our care have been identified as a root cause of why Black women are disproportionately dying.
Irth, a project of the NYC-based tech and media non-profit, Narrative Nation, launched in the Google Play and Apple app stores in March. Learn more at IrthApp.com.
Follow @theirthApp on Instagram and Facebook and @IrthApp on Twitter for the latest event information.