Thea to build trust in moms
Role
Project type
Duration
Settings
Partner
Ethnography research, interviews, observation, service blueprint, journey mapping, ideation, prototyping, interface design, digital ethnography toolkit, video shoot
System design
10 weeks
Katharina Burnner, Regina Gensinger
Microsoft
Design question
How might we form and shape trust and confidence in the mother's decision making?
Challenge
Pregnancy is not a sickness but mothers get this mindset because they lack trust in themselves, how can it be reformed?
We wanted to find what leads to a trustworthy relationship between pregnant women and care providers? Then we defined a sustainable support system around mothers to make them feel safe.
SolutioN
Building a community of support that brings trust in mothers.
Thea helps in building a community of support within parents and parents to be, which leads to trust in between and in themselves. They can share the joy and pain and discuss the problems and break the boundaries of taboos around them. Being pregnant is quite natural and how can mothers embrace is phenomenon naturally. Thea also approaches to bring the partner in the loop.
What is THEA?
It is a platform that embraces the community of support for mothers keeping care providers and services around her in the loop along with her partner.
This system consists of a starting kit with the primary information needed during pregnancy, pre and post natal care as well as labour. It also offers an app connecting you to a local community and additional information via social media and web presence
Concept video
INSIGHTS FROM ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Problems that was mentioned by mothers and care givers
in the current healthcare system.
Over medicalization
“I feel sick every time I visit for my regular tests. There are icon tablets, protein supplements, 3-4 tests, to many machines.
A mom to be
Language barrier
“I don’t speak your language and you don’t speak mine, I feel isolated. Is there anyone around me who can help me share my anxiety”.
A mom to be
Information overload
“There is way too much information around, I get overwhelmed if I just want to google some simple question.”
A mom to be
Isolation state
“I know I am not alone going through pregnancy, there is always someone like me who is going through this”.
A mom to be
Inequality
I don’t have enough money to support my extra classes or personal assistance to get exposure that I need during my pregnancy”.
Mom to two, Midwife
Lack of trust in the system
Even if pregnancy is treated differently in different cultures but birth is common. Why every one has different oppinion?
Mom to two, Midwife
Solution
Thea has four touchpoints designed to provide information, connect and talk about concerns and taboos.

The kit provides primary and necessary information for mothers along with some personal care toolkit
Making Thea accessible to wider and distant mothers across the world
A digital or physical space where moms meet and greet.

Connecting the community of mothers bring a sense of togetherness at a distance
Basic flow
3
1
2
4
5
Journey starts from discovery of pregnancy
Collecting important information
Connecting moms
Visit to hospital and gynaecologist
Gynaecologist provides an information kit to expectant and invitation to virtual community
Expectant downloads the app and gets introduced to the community and services
Meeting up at places
Become a support for each other
Meeting at virtual space and local birthplace
Create an ever growing community of support for mothers
Sharing experiences
Collect evidence based knowledge and gain trust in decision making
kit Value
Providing the relevant information
During our research, we found that every mother gets through multiple confusions especially in the early stage of pregnancy. They know that there are changes happening in their body and emotions but mostly they are not prepared to manage those changes which also causes anxiety. With Thea kit, we have tried to gather everything that a mother needs to know during their pregnancy. Like -
- To-do list
- Monthly information card
- A journey dairy
- Invitation to the community of mom

Including partner in the journey.
While speaking to mothers, it was felt that partners are often left behind in the journey, we wanted
to inspire the partners to be in the journey together and get prepared for the birth process also, as they often do not know what to expect.

Connecting moms with moms, care providers and services around her
Most important opportunity space that we found in research, pregnant women often feel alone when it comes to sharing their feelings. Also, when they want to know something specific about their health or other issues they don't know whom to reach out to. Thea app provides an opportunity to connects to mothers and services around them.




Connections of services
Connections of moms and care providers
Invite, meet and greet, talk
There are times when a mother need to know something and they already know and comfortable sharing the knowledge with other moms. Through Thea, events could be hosted in a digital or physical space.


Setting up meetings

Published event
Stay informed and learn in groups
Many moms experience alone due to the nuclear family concept or job opportunities. Being new to places has many barriers in getting relevant information of help. Thea accumulates all the news and events around pregnancy within locality and global.


Selecting local events
Connection and publication update
App value
Social media presence
To reach out to mothers and care providers from all over the world and spread positivity
While designing Thea services we came across various cases like not having access to kit or coming across Thea via a different channel. For those moms, we wanted to offer positivity and information that they need irrespective of their geographic location.
Web presence
There is a possibility of moms not receiving the kit but landing on the app or getting to know the service via word of mouth. Thea ensures to connect those moms to the community to get help.
Service blueprint
Thea involves various stakeholders like gynecologists, hospitals, government, local birthplaces, and care providers like doula and midwives.
Skeleton of the service keeping principles intact at every step and touchpoint with the service. The blueprint provides a detailed view of what stands behind the basic user flow, which is the part that is visible to the broad user group.
Future vision
Accessible healthcare system, reduces mental stress from mothers, less cost on government and healthcare.
Thea as a service helps mothers in building trust in themselves and with the care providers which could be a positive impact on the overall healthcare system.
