The MoMba® Application

Developed as part of the Mental health Outreach for MotherS (MOMS) Partnership® at Yale School of Medicine, MoMba® is an evidence-based social media application that uses a motivational reward system to promote healthy mother-infant interaction, social connectedness, and community engagement. When deployed as part of broader structured maternal mental health programming, MoMba strengthens mothers’ mental health and their connections with their young children, and builds strong and sustainable local support networks.

• A safe and supportive network for moms and other adult female caregivers facing social isolation and depressive symptoms
• Challenges designed to help mothers improve their relationship with their infant by strengthening maternal sensitivity
• Informational resources that mothers can use to find services for which they are eligible
• Material resources that help mothers meet their family’s basic needs

MoMba users report improved mood and enhanced feelings of belonging and purpose, as well as sharing of resources with other local mothers. MoMba also has the potential for public costs savings. Decreased depression helps improve overall behavioral health outcomes for female enrollees and provides a greater return on investment for payers. Improved mental health and greater feelings of social connectedness – a key goal for MoMba users – also translate into moms’ engagement and enrollment into other programs. Additionally, strong mother-infant attachment enabled by strong maternal mental health can lead to healthy early childhood development and reduced chronic health conditions in the child.

A recent engagement with Hopelab, a social innovation lab based in San Francisco, CA, yielded a market analysis that identified a great desire for evidence-based digital solutions for maternal mental health. Specifically, existing maternal mental health digital solutions are open to integrating mental health components, and payers and health systems are interested in applications that can be scaled and leveraged to improve behavioral health outcomes.

Elevate is currently looking for technology partners to update MoMba’s user interface, as well as partners to integrate data collection strategies such as GPS coordinates and biomarkers. Elevate is also seeking partners to pilot MoMba alongside structured programming, such as the MOMS Partnership, to test the app’s impact on reducing social isolation and depression and increasing social capital. To learn more about MoMba, email us at elevate@yale.edu.

Combining the components of the MoMba app with tools to assist mothers in their efforts to quit smoking, MoMba Livelong is an app that builds social support, boosts the mother-child relationship, and provides incentives for mothers to stay smoke-free in their homes. The app uses a carbon monoxide detector to monitor mothers’ smoking cessation maintenance following delivery, and prompts mothers to complete maternal-child and community interaction challenges. Learn more below.