The Maternal Medicine Project
Democratizing expertise. Improving care.
Patients don't stop needing specialty care because they are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Pregnancy and lactation are unique physiologic states that affect care provided by every medical specialty, yet outside of the obstetrician, physicians receive little if any formal training in how to care for these patients. Instead, maternal expertise is often developed over years of clinical experience and self-directed learning by a small number of physicians siloed within their respective medical specialty. Every specialty has these physicians who have devoted their careers to understanding how pregnancy and lactation change the diseases they treat- the “pregnancy person” of the group. Too often, that expertise remains within academic institutions and reaches only those fortunate enough to train or practice alongside them. The Maternal Medicine Project exists to change that.
Our Vision
Our vision is to bring these experts together, preserve what they have learned, and make the collective expertise of the world's leaders in maternal medicine available to every clinician caring for pregnant and lactating patients.
Our Mission
Our mission is to make it easy for clinicians everywhere to access the collective expertise of the world's leaders in maternal medicine.
Through expert-authored content, immersive case-based learning, and thoughtfully designed digital tools, we aim to democratize maternal medical knowledge—bringing decades of expertise from a handful of specialists to every clinician caring for pregnant and lactating patients.
Imagine being able to ask the worlds pregnancy experts “How do you manage this [condition, medication, diagnostic challenge, procedure] when she comes in pregnant…”. Or ask a radiologist “does she really need to pump and dump”, or ask a surgeon “what technique do you use when biopsying a lactating breast” – that is what we are building here.
The future of maternal medicine is being written every day by physicians caring for patients, asking new questions, and advancing research. The Maternal Medicine Project exists to make that collective knowledge accessible to every clinician.
Meet the Founder
Dr. Jena Pizula is a maternal cardiologist with unique dual training in internal medicine and pediatrics, clinician-educator, and researcher at Stanford University who believes one idea has the power to transform maternal healthcare:
The knowledge already exists. It just isn't accessible enough.
Throughout her career, she has cared for pregnant patients with complex cardiovascular disease while teaching medical students, residents, fellows, and practicing physicians. Again and again, she witnessed the same problem. Across every medical specialty, a handful of physicians had quietly developed extraordinary expertise in caring for pregnant and lactating patients. Their knowledge was invaluable—but often limited to those who trained with them, worked alongside them, or knew whom to call.
The Maternal Medicine Project was born from a simple question:
What if every clinician could learn directly from those experts?
Jena's vision is to bring together the world's leading maternal specialists across every discipline, preserve their expertise, and make it accessible through modern educational technologies—including immersive case-based learning, simulation, and thoughtfully designed artificial intelligence.
She believes that the next breakthrough in maternal health will not come from a single discovery. It will come from ensuring that the knowledge our profession has already built—and continues to build—reaches every clinician caring for pregnant and lactating patients.
Her goal is ambitious but simple: to democratize maternal expertise so that geography no longer determines the quality of maternal knowledge available to her physician.