Meet Vibha Mahendra of SafePartum

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vibha Mahendra.

Hi Vibha, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am an Obstetric Anesthesiologist by training, and I am really fortunate to be able to use my education and clinical experience to improve maternal health outcomes from the bedside. Most people characterize medical training as arduous and demanding, but what is often left out (and I think what sustains many of us) are the small moments of happiness you get on a daily basis when you get to know your patients, give them a safe space to express vulnerability, problem solve together, and offer them comfort when you have nothing else to give. Obstetric Anesthesiology is a specialty in which we witness and experience deep joy as well as devastation alongside our patients, and so, upon completing Anesthesiology Residency and Obstetric Anesthesiology Fellowship in 2019, I knew that I wanted to build my practice around women’s health, with an emphasis on maternal and neonatal wellness.

Just prior to graduation, I started emailing the CMQCC (California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative), an amazing public health organization that was one of the first in the country to start collecting detailed data on pregnancy outcomes such as hypertensive disorders, sepsis, hemorrhage, and pregnancy-associated death. I wanted to get involved in their organization in any capacity they would allow me, and in 2020, they invited me to join the Southern California review committee for pregnancy-associated maternal deaths (CA-PAMR). Between the maternal deaths I was reviewing every few months (mostly preventable) and witnessing so much suboptimal medical management in the facilities where I was practicing, I knew I had to do more.

I started SafePartum in 2021 because I saw so many opportunities for us to improve and coordinate the way we practice medicine in service of our pregnant patients and their communities. I went through several ideas before I realized we needed to start with a platform where anyone with an interest in maternal and neonatal health could ask questions, learn evidence-based practices, and share their experiences. Most members of the SafePartum audience/community are physicians from various specialties (anesthesiology, obstetrics, maternal-fetal medicine, and critical care), labor and delivery nurses, advanced practiced providers (nurse anesthetists, midwives, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners), and patients seeking information from a reputable source.

I feel so fortunate to work in maternal health and am so appreciative that people trust us to provide answers and clinical guidance as they navigate through an increasingly complex set of problems in a healthcare system that has failed so many in our community.

SafePartum’s platforms are still growing and developing to meet the needs of our diverse audience of healthcare partners and patients. We are excited to launch a number of new support platforms and tools in 2024!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
SafePartum started as an idea I had on a walk around South Pasadena and has evolved significantly since then, shaped in part by the realities of the healthcare system we work in. These challenges serve as both fuel and inspiration for SafePartum’s growth.

The first major challenge continues to be convincing practicing clinicians that the poor maternal outcomes in this country partially reflect a lack of clinician competence and/or awareness of better techniques or practices. I think this is so hard for doctors and nurses to accept, especially when they’ve been in practice for years. But the reality is that every one of us has room to improve the way we practice medicine, and until we accept accountability and start investing in our own growth and education as healthcare providers, we will not meet the increasingly complex needs of our patients and their families. So, it has been a challenge to get buy-in from clinicians who cannot see where their practices may be contributing to poor maternal outcomes.

The second main challenge has been that clinical medicine, unlike the medical research industry, which is highly innovative, has been slow to incorporate technology and social media as tools for clinical support, growth, and public reach. The best way around this challenge has been to create digital tools and content that we believe in and show leaders in the field that it works! People usually come around when you make their practice easier and safer.

Being young in medicine is more of a liability than it is in other industries – and while it is certainly an advantage when it comes to SafePartum embracing technology and a new generation of learners, it is also a drawback when trying to convince more experienced colleagues that there are new and more evidence-based ways of practicing medicine when it comes to pregnancy care.

While the practice of Obstetric Anesthesiology is hardly new, the way in which fellowship-trained Obstetric Anesthesiologists practice is significantly different than past generations and much more comprehensive than just placing an epidural or spinal and walking away. Our specialty graduates only 50 fellows per year, so it will take some time to change the culture of anesthesiology on labor and delivery to embrace a team-based and holistic dynamic. Our colleagues in obstetrics and maternal-fetal medicine have definitely embraced our presence, though! The data tells us the same thing that our patients, nurses, and obstetric providers tell me, which is that there is a significant difference in outcomes when there is an obstetric-trained anesthesiologist taking care of their patients on L&D.

And finally, getting the word out is always a challenge! Everything we create at SafePartum is intended for a broad audience, so we really appreciate the opportunity to share what we do with the LA Voyage community!

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The quality of maternal healthcare in the US is inadequate for the growing number of high-risk conditions in the pregnant population. To improve maternal health in this country, we need two things:

1. Healthcare providers who are competent and equipped to manage more complex patients. This means every specialty that interacts with pregnant patients and neonates needs better on-the-job training as well as widespread access to multidisciplinary education that is up-to-date and curated by experts in the field.

2. Improved patient understanding of pregnancy changes, what is normal vs what is abnormal, and to feel comfortable advocating for themselves in the healthcare setting.

How does SafePartum provide and support both of these needs?

At SafePartum, our mission is to redefine the standards of care for maternal and neonatal health by harnessing the power of subspecialty expertise and digital innovation. Founded by Obstetric Anesthesiologists, we are dedicated to enhancing maternal and neonatal outcomes during every stage of pregnancy, labor, and postpartum.

Through cutting-edge virtual and in-person education, bedside clinical support tools, and interprofessional collaboration, we empower healthcare providers to deliver the highest quality care to expectant mothers with any type of medical condition. By seamlessly integrating knowledge and technology, we aspire to create a safer and healthier journey for both mothers and their precious newborns, setting new benchmarks for excellence in maternal care.

We are known for our innovative educational platform that serves as a hub for a multidisciplinary audience of pregnancy-focused healthcare workers. SafePartum is in the process of launching the following:

1. SafePartum Academy: This is our flagship offering, an educational platform for healthcare workers who take care of pregnant patients. We host virtual and in-person conferences as well as provide on-demand education on high-yield clinical topics. Our last conference, Obstetric Critical Care & Emergencies (Sept 2023), brought together nearly 200 healthcare workers for two days. Our upcoming conference, Addiction Medicine & Pain Management in Pregnancy (March 2, 2024), will highlight some of the most pressing issues in maternal health right now, like substance use and mental health in the pregnant population.

2. PocketPartum Mobile App: A bedside clinical tool that has a pregnancy-specific drug library, high-risk pregnancy clinical tools, emergency resources, updated guidelines, and personal goal-tracking. This app caters to all healthcare providers who take care of pregnant patients (physicians, nurse anesthetists, RNs, midwives, and other advanced practice providers). We hope to go live in April 2024!

3. SafePartum x OUMA Health Interprofessional Consult Service: A telehealth platform in partnership with Ouma Health (Maternal-Fetal Medicine High-Risk Pregnancy Service) that aims to allow providers from all over the country to submit high-risk consults to us. Within 24-72 hours, depending on urgency, we provide a comprehensive antepartum or peripartum plan for managing their patient’s high-risk conditions. This platform aims to fill the maternal health deserts left throughout this country where there is a lack of subspecialty care (especially OB Anesthesia and Materal-Fetal Medicine).

4. Community Building & Patient Education: We continue to provide a lot of free and public education on common pregnancy topics such as epidurals, pain management during labor, pelvic floor protection and recovery, and so much more. We are hosting an in-person “Empowering Birth Community Pop Up” Event with the Maya Salon in South Pasadena on January 14, 2024. The educational event is open to the public, and anyone interested in learning about pain management in labor as well as pelvic floor health is welcome to come! Our partner, the Maya Salon, is going to be providing free salon services to a limited number of attendees as well! We are excited to expand our patient-facing resources in 2024, so stay tuned!

There are a lot of maternal health-centric companies and initiatives, but we are most proud of the quality of the content we provide. There are medical societies that have attempted to do this, but we are really the only ones out there with board-certified physicians as active and prolific educational content creators. This means we are constantly generating educational materials that serve the modern adult learner while also providing the highest level of evidence-based and clinically relevant content to healthcare workers. We also are unique in that we provide reliable and free information for patients and the public. So much information is available to the public these days, and unfortunately, much of it is taught by people without the proper level of expertise, which leads to increased fear and misinformation.

We curate a free Newsletter (safepartum.com/email-list), a Podcast (Partum the Interruption available on Apple, Spotify, & Google), and social media accounts (IG @SafePartum, Twitter @SafePartum, Tiktok) that are all open to the public and provide high-quality content on tons of obstetric and obstetric anesthesia topics!

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
We are always looking for topics that our audience, both patients and healthcare workers, want to learn about! You can submit requests or suggest educational topics for the Newsletter, Social Media posts, or Partum the Interruption Podcast by DMing us on Instagram @SafePartum or emailing [email protected].

Our upcoming events, open to everyone:
Jan 14, 2024: Empowering Birth Community Pop-Up
The Maya Salon, South Pasadena
Details to be released in December on our socials & Newsletter

March 2, 2024: Addiction Medicine & Pain Management in Pregnancy
Registration: https://blue-sea-869.myflodesk.com/

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.safepartum.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/safepartum/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071207360820
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SafePartum
• Youtube: linkedin.com/in/vibha-mahendra-2241a6220
• Other: https://safepartum-academy.teachable.com