【MamaWell Co., Ltd.】Preventing Premature Birth Experienced by 1 in 3 Pregnant Women! "MamaWell" Protects Pregnant Women's Careers and Health Through Data and Midwife Hybrid Care

Preventing "Over-activity or Under-activity" in Pregnancy. Research Insight Reducing Pregnancy Complications by 40% to 70%

Hello, everyone. This is the last pitch of today. My name is Marika Seki, Representative Director of MamaWell Co., Ltd. Thank you very much for having me.

We provide \"MamaWell,\" a hybrid health management support service from pregnancy that combines digital health data with professional care by midwives.

Suddenly, let me ask you: what if your beloved partner or key female employee had to be emergency hospitalized due to threatened premature labor caused by working too hard? Please imagine that situation for a moment. Her career, which she had built up, would suddenly be interrupted, and she might blame herself, saying, \"Was it greedy of me to want both a job and a child?\" This event can drastically change a working woman's life.

Against this situation, some companies might think, \"Isn't it enough for them to receive regular maternity checkups at medical institutions?\" However, the reality is that 1 in 3 working pregnant women experience threatened premature labor, and 1 in 5 develop pregnancy complications. And this number is increasing year by year against the backdrop of late childbirth and the rise of dual-income households. Existing healthcare support only provides post-treatment resources after an abnormality occurs, and preventive and continuous companion support from early pregnancy is severely lacking.

Therefore, based on my own insights as a midwife and researcher, we focused on the \"appropriate activity level\" of pregnant women. For pregnant women, over-activity is not good, but under-activity is also not good; there is an appropriate range (optimal zone) of activity for each individual. Research data shows that if daily activity levels can be kept within this appropriate range, the incidence of pregnancy complications can be reduced by 40% to 70%.

However, this appropriate range varies for each pregnant woman depending on her constitution and pregnancy weeks, requiring fine individual adjustments. Therefore, \"MamaWell\" supports the self-behavioral change and health management of pregnant women through a hybrid approach that visualizes data using digital health and combines it with the professional expertise of midwives.

Wearable Data and Online Accompaniement by Dedicated Midwives. Over Half of Companies Use it to Care for Spouses of Male Employees

As a concrete service flow, pregnant women wear general wearable devices such as Fitbit daily.

Data such as heart rate, sleep duration, and activity levels at each intensity obtained from the device are automatically synchronized to the \"MamaWell\" app via API. This data is shared between the pregnant woman and her dedicated midwife.

The midwife monitors from the data whether the balance between activity and rest is appropriately maintained, and whether the workload is too heavy. Through regular online interviews or LINE feedback, they perform concrete daily life planning for the following week.

In addition, we have established a system where pregnant women can consult their dedicated midwife via LINE at any time about sudden anxieties or worries during pregnancy, contributing greatly to reducing psychological stress.

We also approach the father, who is the partner. We deliver reliable information on pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare to the father's account, and provide a system where the father himself can consult via LINE. This supports the couple in walking together from pregnancy to postpartum, helping them start smooth \"co-parenting\" after childbirth.

The effects of the service are already clear. The incidence of complications among \"MamaWell\" users is extremely low compared to the national average, proving a high preventive effect with zero complications in the last three months. Furthermore, in terms of productivity, we obtained data showing a significant 14% improvement in work productivity among pregnant women who used the service. Pregnant women have shared, \"Since I can see how much activity is appropriate for me from the data, I can control my work load without overdoing it or giving up, reducing my fear of career gaps.\"

Thanks to these results, the number of introducing companies has already exceeded 140. Our service is mainly introduced as corporate welfare (health management), but an interesting feature is that it is widely adopted by male-dominated companies where male employees account for 80% to 90% of the workforce. More than half of the introducing companies cover the cost for the spouses of male employees (even if the wife works for another company) and pay the full cost.

This is because the high cost-effectiveness of family health directly impacting male employees' engagement and productivity has been recognized. Companies are strongly utilizing \"MamaWell\" to reduce medical costs, improve the mid-to-long-term retention rate of female employees, differentiate themselves in recruitment, and build their brand as a family-friendly company.

Rapid Growth with 11x Sales Increase in Half a Year. Reaching 10% of Births in Japan to Achieve 3.1 Billion Yen Sales by 2030

Although the birthrate is declining in Japan, the demand for high-quality maternity care is rising globally due to late childbirth, dual-income households, and high-risk pregnancies, and the market targeted by \"MamaWell\" continues to grow. Furthermore, preventive personalized care for pregnant women that prompts behavioral change based on wearable data remains a \"white space\" (unexplored market) globally.

Capturing this social trend and the change in corporate awareness towards health management, our sales have achieved a rapid growth of approximately 11 times in the last half-year. Moving forward, we are developing functions and programs to accompany them through safe return-to-work processes, reducing the blank career period to increase investment effects for companies.

Our goal is to deliver \"MamaWell\" to 10% of births in Japan by 2030 and achieve sales of 3.1 billion yen.

Our team consists of specialists in both healthcare and business, including myself as a midwife and researcher who serves on the expert committee of the Children and Families Agency, obstetricians, data scientists, and former members of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and mega-ventures. More than 70 registered midwives who cleared our strict internal standards are registered, building a solid structure that can handle both quality and scale.

For serious challenges such as pregnancy complications and postpartum depression, approaching from \"prevention\" before onset rather than \"treatment\" after onset is crucial for fundamental resolution. We want to expand introduction alliances with health insurance societies and companies to create a society where women can work and live with peace of mind even when pregnant. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much.

Q&A and Feedback

Commentator (Mr. Fukuda): Thank you, Ms. Seki, for the excellent presentation. Your delivery is very powerful, and the value of preventive approaches to deep social pains was well communicated. Approaching at the stage of prevention rather than treating after illness is extremely essential.

As a basic question, is the wearable device worn on the wrist self-developed, or do you use commercially available general devices like Fitbit or Apple Watch?

Ms. Seki: Thank you for the question. The device itself is not self-developed. We use commercially available general wearable devices such as Fitbit.

By utilizing the APIs of devices that pregnant women daily use or can easily obtain, we automatically synchronize data like step count, sleep duration, and heart rate to the \"MamaWell\" app in the background. This minimizes initial hardware investment risks while providing a monitoring screen optimized for pregnant women and a dashboard for midwives.

Mr. Fukuda: I see. You use general Fitbits and get data via API. That eliminates hardware investment risk and makes it easy for users.

Also, having more than half of the companies cover the costs for male employees' spouses (wives) as corporate welfare is a wonderful initiative for family care.

On the other hand, when do pregnant women \"graduate (end use)\" from this service? As you also target postpartum depression, they would continue using it after childbirth, but what is the trigger for ending, and do you have plans for subsequent data utilization or cross-selling other services?

Ms. Seki: The timing of graduation is determined by the cost-coverage rules of the introducing companies or health insurance societies, but most companies cover the costs \"until 3 months postpartum.\"

This is based on a rational design covering the highest-risk period, as the peak of postpartum depression onset occurs around the third month postpartum. After three months, mothers get used to childcare, gain confidence, and their lives settle down, so almost all of them naturally end service utilization with the end of corporate coverage.

Regarding your point that \"letting go of the contact with acquired users is a waste,\" we are currently developing programs to support their smooth \"return to work.\"

If we support their health and mental care during the career break and safely accelerate their return to work, it will prove a very high ROI for companies and help women maintain their work motivation. Currently, we do not have plans for cross-selling other companies' services, but we eye long-term accompaniment and multi-dimensional support according to life stages on our platform.

Mr. Fukuda: A clear design graduating users after postpartum depression peaks, and a roadmap connecting them to return-to-work support to increase LTV.

Although it seems like a headwind market due to the declining birthrate, capturing the tailwinds of female empowerment and male childcare leave to achieve an 11x sales increase in half a year is excellent. Your high aspirations and the solid resource of 70 registered midwives give high expectations. Please continue to expand the business to save many families.

Ms. Seki: Thank you very much for the encouraging feedback. We will do our best to build MamaWell as a sustainable business that pays fair rewards to participating midwives, rather than just a volunteer project.