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Innovation + Job News

Amma Maternity births new model for pre-natal classes

Sara Pearce's baby is growing up fast.

The registered nurse and midwife started Amma Maternity in 2007, leasing time at a Minneapolis yoga studio to offer a popular parenting class for new mothers. Amma Maternity has since been named the exclusive provider of childbirth and newborn classes for Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park.

Meanwhile, Pearce has left the yoga studio for her first storefront location, at 3511 Hazelton Road in the Yorktown Mall in Edina. The company is now looking to partner with other hospitals that would like to outsource their childbirth classes, which are inconvenient and unprofitable for most hospitals.

Pearce says she borrowed the business model from a childbirth center in Boston. She believes Amma Maternity is only the second company nationwide to implement it.

What's a hassle for hospitals can be profitable for Amma Maternity because of its other products and services. In short: they come for the pre-natal, but often sign-up for new-parent classes or shop at the retail boutique. Parents like the service because it's in a "really cute, consumer-friendly space" with up-to-date AV equipment, and provides a sense of community, says Pearce.

"I think people are attracted to the setting and the idea of an updated experience," says Pearce.

The business has been profitable from day one, says Pearce. She estimates that she sees about 125 new families per month, and it's all hospital referrals or word of mouth.

(Amma Maternity is hosting an open house on Tuesday, Sept. 14.)

Source: Sara Pearce, Amma Maternity
Writer: Dan Haugen
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