The Hidden Injuries of Childbirth: Why Women Deserve Better Care and Awareness

As a mom of four sons now ages 25, 27, 29 and 31, it feels like there are some conversations that feel long overdue, and this is one of them.

At Best Ever You, we talk often about awareness, advocacy, and what it means to truly take care of yourself. But there are areas of health that, for far too long, have remained quiet, misunderstood, or simply accepted as “just part of life.”

Childbirth is one of them.

For generations, women have been told that pain, injury, and long-term complications are simply part of the experience. That it’s normal. That it’s expected. And that message has kept important conversations from happening.

That’s why this discussion matters.

In this interview, Tracy MacNeal brings forward a perspective that challenges long-held assumptions about maternal health and highlights the need for greater awareness, innovation, and support. Her work is helping to shine a light on what many women experience but are rarely encouraged to talk about—and what is possible when we begin to question what we’ve been told to accept.

Because awareness is where change begins.

You’ve said that childbirth can be one of the most physically traumatic experiences a woman may face. What first opened your eyes to the gap in care and awareness around pelvic floor injuries?

Before I was asked to lead Materna Medical, I had never heard of pelvic organ prolapse.  As I learned more, I was shocked to learn that 300,000 women get a surgery for it every year.  The symptoms can range from mild to severe, with trouble controlling your bladder, such as leaking urine, trouble controlling bowel movements, including accidental stool leakage, difficulty holding gas, or trouble fully emptying the bowels, and problems with sex.  And if a woman has delivered a baby vaginally, her risk of prolapse increases by 5X.  It was incredible to me that the problem could be so big, and yet no one was doing anything to reduce these injuries.

Why do you think these injuries have remained so under-discussed and underdiagnosed for so long?

Two things. First, they happen to women, so it is less visible to society. Imagine if 300,000 new dads experienced birth trauma every year that caused them to leak urine or poop and have problems with sex? “Testicles where you don’t want them?” That would be a huge problem. But since it happens to women, we tend to shrug and say, “Yeah, that’s what happens sometimes.” We want more for new moms. 

Second, these symptoms have historically been stigmatized, so women don’t disclose them to their friends or even their doctors sometimes. But women can take a page out of the success book of erectile dysfunction and know that women can overcome stigma and get the innovation they deserve.

Many women are told that pain or long-term complications are simply “part of childbirth.” What do you want women to understand about what is actually preventable?

We’re just at the earliest stages of building out the healthcare infrastructure that women deserve. Some things have no treatment yet. However, let’s think about the idea of reducing pelvic floor injuries during labor & delivery. We know the importance of stretching before we work out, so we can imagine that if we were to pre-stretch the pelvic floor muscles very slowly, instead of suddenly (the way the baby’s head does), we could imagine a world with fewer injuries to new moms. It has yet to be proven, but in a published clinical study on our new product, Ellora™, only 1 of the 46 patients who experienced the device had an injury, compared to 7 of the 64 patients who received no device and gave birth without it, as measured on postpartum ultrasounds – watch this space at www.maternamedical.com.

How do these types of injuries impact women’s lives beyond the physical—emotionally, mentally, and relationally?

Pelvic organ prolapse affects far more than the body—it can deeply impact a woman’s emotional well‑being, mental health, intimate relationships, and sense of self, often leading to anxiety, embarrassment, reduced confidence, and changes in daily and sexual activities. Research shows that women commonly describe pelvic organ prolapse (POP) as a life‑altering condition with ongoing psychological and social consequences, comparable to other chronic health conditions, highlighting the importance of treatments that address quality of life, not just anatomy. (Carroll, L. et al. (2022). Pelvic organ prolapse: The lived experience. PLOS ONE, 17(11), e0276788. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276788)

You’ve pointed out that childbirth technology has lagged behind other areas of medicine for decades. Why has maternal health been so underfunded and overlooked?

Childbirth isn’t a disease, of course, and in many cases, it works best with minimal medical intervention. At Materna, we strongly support the midwife model and care approaches that respect physiology and patient autonomy. At the same time, maternal health sits at the intersection of complex social history, including longstanding gender bias, racial injustice, and a uniquely high litigation environment, which has made innovation slower and more cautious. Over time, that hesitation has created a feedback loop—less investment leads to less infrastructure for collaboration between clinicians and innovators—leaving maternal care underserved compared to other areas of medicine. The encouraging shift we’re seeing now is a growing recognition that supporting childbirth with smarter, respectful technology can strengthen—not replace—human‑centered care and meaningfully improve outcomes.

What needs to change at a system level—whether in healthcare, investment, or awareness—to move this forward?

To truly improve birth care, we need a system that values it more than we currently do. When obstetrical care is better supported financially, doctors and hospitals have the time and resources to focus on what matters most: developing and adopting new approaches that make birth safer and more supportive for moms. That kind of support also gives investors confidence to fund new technologies—and to back the large, rigorous clinical studies needed to prove these technologies are safe and effective.

At Materna, we’ve been fortunate to partner with mission‑driven investors like InnovaHealth Partners in New York, Wavemaker Three‑Sixty Health in Los Angeles, and Golden Seeds, who share our belief that women’s health deserves serious investment. Their support has allowed us to do something rare: build strong clinical evidence and secure a new reimbursement pathway so hospitals can offer innovation without putting moms—or providers—at a disadvantage.

Our hope is that this work will help open the door for more companies to follow, and for more solutions to reach the delivery room. Because when we invest in women’s health, the benefits ripple outward—to families, to communities, and to future generations. As we like to say at Materna: “When we invest in women, we all win.”

Materna Medical is developing technology to help prepare the body for childbirth in a more gradual, controlled way. Can you explain how this works and why it has the potential to be so impactful?

The muscles that support your pelvic floor hold your bladder, uterus, vagina, and rectum together. These muscles are designed to stretch—but how they stretch matters. Scientists call these tissues “viscoelastic,” which simply means they respond differently depending on how quickly pressure is applied. A helpful way to picture this is with something like silly putty: when you stretch it slowly, it lengthens smoothly; when you pull it too fast, it’s more likely to tear.

The pelvic floor works in much the same way. When muscles are given time to stretch gradually, they can typically adapt safely and effectively. Our approach with our new product, Ellora™, is built around that simple principle—working with the body’s natural mechanics rather than against them. By stretching gently and slowly, we hope to reduce the number of women who experience pelvic injuries during childbirth.

Early clinical findings are showing promising results. What excites you most about what this could mean for the future of childbirth care?

Our early studies on Ellora™ have been encouraging, and they give us real hope about what’s possible. The next step is to publish strong evidence showing that this approach is both safe and effective, so it can be made available to families and care teams who could benefit from it. If we succeed, we believe it could mark the beginning of a new way of thinking about labor and delivery—one that doesn’t stop at a healthy birth, but also prioritizes the long‑term comfort, strength, and well‑being of new moms.

You emphasize the importance of women speaking up. What can women do today to better advocate for themselves before, during, and after childbirth?

Advocating for yourself starts before labor by asking questions and sharing what matters to you—your goals, concerns, and preferences for birth and recovery. These conversations help build alignment with your care team and ensure decisions feel collaborative, not rushed.

During labor, self‑advocacy often means leaning on a trusted support person, like a partner or doula, to help ask questions and slow things down when needed. Simple questions such as “What are the options?” or “Do we need to decide now?” can make a big difference.

After birth, your voice still matters. If something doesn’t feel right—physically or emotionally—speak up and ask for support. Seeking pelvic floor care, mental health support, or clearer guidance is an important part of healing. Sharing your experience, openly and honestly, also helps make better care possible for the moms who come next.

If you could change one thing about how childbirth is approached and understood in the next five to ten years, what would it be?

If we could change one thing, it would be how deeply our health systems consider a mother’s health in the long run—not just at the moment of delivery. We hope that innovations like our device, Ellora™, can help reshape labor and delivery so it supports women not only in those intense hours of birth, but in the decades that follow.

Seeing this kind of care recognized and supported at the national level, as we did by receiving our reimbursement code from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, signals a growing commitment to improving maternal outcomes in meaningful ways. Our goal is to help open the door for more thoughtful innovation in women’s health—starting with improving birth and then expanding to address other unmet needs. By proving what’s possible, we hope to inspire a wave of new solutions that make childbirth safer, more supportive, and more centered on moms everywhere.

What stands out most in this conversation is not just the information—it’s the shift in perspective. A shift from acceptance to awareness. From silence to conversation. From “this is just how it is” to “what if it could be better?”

At Best Ever You, we believe that informed choices and self-advocacy are powerful forms of self-care. Not from a place of fear, but from a place of understanding, clarity, and respect for your own body.

If something doesn’t feel right, it deserves attention. If something has been normalized but feels off, it’s worth questioning.

Pause long enough to listen to your body.

Breathe and create space to ask questions.

Choose to advocate for yourself in ways that support your long-term health and well-being.

These conversations matter—not just for today, but for the future of care, for women everywhere, and for the generations that follow.

Because when we begin to speak up, learn more, and expect better, real change becomes possible.

And when you grow, the world grows with you.