Dear Doctor: Taraneh Shirazian
The gynecologist and non-profit founder working to improve access to care for women across the globe.
A board-certified gynecologist at NYU and the Director of Global Women’s Health at NYU’s College of Global Public Health, Taraneh Shirazian is on a mission to empower women through education and improving health outcomes, which is why she started her own nonprofit called Saving Mothers. In the ten years since its launch, the company has built women’s healthcare programs around the world, giving women and provides the education and tools they need for safe pregnancies and deliveries. Read on to learn about Dr. Shirazian’s latest venture — a product line for mothers, Mommy Matters — and the one thing she wished more people knew about women’s health!
“I love the complexity of medicine and the simplicity of being able to change people’s lives for the better. When I was a medical student, I did my OB-GYN rotation first. I knew that OB-GYN was going to be really exhausting, and a lot of hard work, but I loved every minute of it. I wanted to be up all night with the women, doing deliveries, and in the operating room. It was such an amazing experience. After my first rotation, I knew that it was the specialty I wanted to pursue. I needed to be an OB-GYN no matter how hard it might be.”
Global Health Learnings
One of the things I’ve learned from working around the world is that most women don’t have a sense of their own bodies or their own health. No matter where I am, whether it’s in Guatemala or in the middle of NYC, there’s not a great understanding of what’s going on. So education is key.
We need to understand ourselves and know what to expect from our bodies and how to identify when there’s an issue. It’s my mission to empower women to be able to do this; it is what drives me in my work at home and abroad.
There’s a lack of resources around the world. If you’ve traveled anywhere else, you see what little exists in hospitals — on labor and delivery floors, and in operating rooms. In many cases, these places lack basic resources like clean sheets, beds, lap pads, and gloves — all things that we take for granted in the U.S. Also, there’s a gap in training providers. It’s unfathomable that many issues they see are preventable if they just had the education, skills, and resources necessary.
Working in the Field
On one of our first trips to Kenya, we formed a training group of all the birth attendants in the community. We started off by having them tell us about what they do, so we could better understand their day-to-day. We began discussing complications and what one should do in certain situations. One of the attendants raised her hand and said that recently she had a woman who was bleeding at her home and she didn’t know what to do. I asked her what action she took to control the bleeding and her response was that she thought it would be best to transfer the patient to the hospital because she didn’t know how to proceed. The closest hospital is about 12 hours away — so we talked about what she could’ve done in that situation to help immediately. I taught her how to do a bimanual massage, a method of massaging the uterus that helps it contract and stop bleeding. You have to put one hand in the vagina and the other on the abdomen. As I was talking her through it, she expressed that she didn’t realize she was allowed to put her hand in the vagina.
This was eye-opening for me. We learn from these situations the cultural implications of care and the nuances of each community. The next time that I came back, the same attendant told me that she had another woman who was bleeding really badly, and that when she tried the bimanual massage that I taught her and she had stopped bleeding. She didn’t need to transfer her to the hospital and risk the long wait and travel time. I was so excited for her. What this story shows is the impact that something small like listening, understanding, and teaching can have on a person or community. I regularly do major surgeries that change lives, yet sometimes these smaller counseling moments have just as big of an impact.
Starting Saving Mothers
I started Saving Mothers in 2009. Every year has been a learning process, and each year we’ve grown. So far, we’ve worked in seven communities globally and we’re launching a NYC program this year that will focus on maternal mortality.
Saving Mothers is built off of the model I created, which is called “Innovate, Incubate, and Ignite.” The first step, “Innovate,” involves strategizing maternal health programs in the chosen community. The next step, “Incubate,” means sitting with the local teams to understand what they’re currently doing, and to see how a maternal health program will best fit into their existing operations. We then field test the programs and consider the cultural implications on the ground. Once we develop the program, we “Ignite,” which refers to packaging the program so that the community can learn to deliver it on its own. Ultimately, we want other communities to be able to pick up the programs and execute them in their own communities. We want it to be transferable and sustainable in that way.
Our newest project is a product line called Mommy Matters. It’s about creating good, efficient pregnancy and recovery products for women that also tie consumers into the global movement of mothers, as the proceeds go back to Saving Mothers. The goal and hope is that we are forming one community that serves another. Our first product is available on Amazon — it’s an ergonomic pregnancy pillow for the working mom. The next product will be recovery panties for improving women’s comfort during recovery. There’s a cooling element; they’re breathable and stretchable.
Integrating Technology and Innovation
Among the tools we’ve developed for our programs are various kits. The first one was a birth kit that has basic supplies for a healthy delivery — we’ve given out tens of thousands of them already! The kit includes gloves, Purell, a mat for the mom, a bar of soap, clamps, a razor blade, a baby hat, and baby blankets. We found that they are extremely successful — women need them in the home, in the field, and even in the hospital. In many countries, women have to go and buy what they need before they go to the hospital for their delivery, so this product can make a big difference. We also make hemorrhage kits postpartum hemorrhaging. Lastly, we’ve created POWHER, which is all about training the birth attendants and giving them the prenatal tools they need to carry out a confident prenatal exam. We want to be sure they have all the key essentials for a really strong prenatal visit and to help the attendants identify a high risk pregnancy.
For our launch in New York, we’re developing a new kit. Here, we have very high rates of maternal deaths, so the kit will focus on women’s empowerment tools for the mothers who have trouble accessing services in the hospitals.
Everywhere we go, we use ultrasound technology. In many of the communities we travel to, they’ve never seen ultrasound before, so everyone gathers around to watch. It’s a great way to motivate women to come in for prenatal care because we can show them their baby. Another innovation that is monumental for these communities is a novel preterm indicator test, which can predict whether someone is going to go into labor in five-to-six weeks. We use this in connection with our maternal program in Kenya to help us identify early deliveries, so we can move the mothers closer to the hospital and avoid any complications to the mom or infant.
Changing the Conversation
In our country, we paint pregnancy in a fantastic light — there’s a picture of a woman going into the hospital and coming out with a beautiful baby. The focus is always on the baby and not so much on the mother. For this reason, I created my companies. We need to change the conversation to make it about the mother, too. We know that it’s extremely risky for her to get pregnant. It’s the hardest thing you can ever do on your body. Medically, people underestimate how much of an issue it is.
I wish the public understood that maternal health and child health should be separate, and that we need to prioritize maternal health as well.
Lightning Round
One thing I wish more women knew… the potential complications in pregnancy. Pregnancy is a high-risk state.
Ideal day off in NYC…laying out a blanket in Central Park and lying down in the sun with a book.
Everybody needs some love, attention, and sleep sometimes.
Favorites
NYC coffee shop: I’m a Starbucks addict!
Exercise: Running in Central Park or along the East River.
Travel spot: Patagonia, Chile or New Zealand
You can learn more about Dr. Taraneh Shirazian here. Also, check out Saving Mothers and Mommy Matters.
Know a great female doctor in NYC? We’d love to meet her, introduce us here!
