Just Keep Going - How Rhowena Adolfo Patel is Rising Above Challenges to Innovate in Maternal Healthcare
When Rhowena Adolfo Patel, CEO & Founder, HEALING MAMA™ Co., was seven-months pregnant, a friend gave her what she called a “mom must-have bag.” It included items she had never even heard of before, but proved to be extremely useful for an expecting mom like herself.
Rhowena remembers that day well, saying that “At that moment, it occurred to me that in all my baby preparation, I had not done any preparation for myself! I spent the next month researching items I believed I would need. I scoured the internet for labour and postpartum kits but was disappointed by what I found. There wasn't a single kit that included all of the items I knew I would need.”
This experience was what led to the creation of HEALING MAMA™ Co., homebase for everything you need for and after birth, and a valuable resource for expecting parents.
An encyclopedia of challenges
Rhowena is no stranger to business barriers. She says that the challenges she faced (some of which she continues to face) are “enough to write an encyclopedia on.”
Instead of that encyclopedia, she shares her list:
Access to financing and capital to keep going and grow
Two bankruptcy scares
Marketing, social media marketing, and search engine optimization
Cancer, an operation, tests and ongoing protocols
Marriage and relationships
Parenthood
And though her plate is piled high with challenges, she says “The silver lining through it all is an acceleration in the deepest work of my being.”
Much to celebrate
In January 2023, HEALING MAMA™ Co. was approved for financing by one of Canada’s major banks–an incredible milestone that enabled Rhowena to kickstart the growth she’s celebrating today:
“I expanded my team and brought on an in-house designer, business development and marketing strategist, and operations and production associate. I hired a full-suite marketing agency and contracted a senior web designer to build the full vision of what HEALING MAMA™ Co. deserved to be.”
During its rebuild, the company was offline for over three months–then on September 18, Rhowena and her team were proud to debut a new and improved website.
Though it’s been a long journey here, Rhowena looks forward to celebrating more milestones down the road. Her future goals are to raise the standard of care for all birthing mothers and partners. As she explains, “From the day I started this company, I envisioned every hospital providing our medically backed, pre-packaged and ready-to-go labour and postpartum bags to every pregnant person. I envision Healing Mama providing the necessary innovation in maternal healthcare.”
What success looks like
To Rhowena, personal and professional success are two sides of the same coin:
“My personal success and professional success are simply SUCCESS. True success cannot be fully experienced unless it involves every aspect of my life. In the short term, my goals are to retire my husband from his career so that he can support the operational growth of HEALING MAMA™ Co. In doing so, I can dedicate more of my working time to educating, speaking and standing up for a revolutionized birthing industry. I want to concentrate on bringing HEALING MAMA™ Co. into the global conversation–all while traveling the world with my sweet family.”
Her advice
“If the mother of innovation is necessity, then I'd add to that, in equal levels of importance is a high degree of naivete!
Ensure that the work you are doing or the work your company is doing is bigger than yourself. Bigger than your thoughts and emotions. And even more importantly, bigger than your belief systems. Be clear on the impact you are making in the world. Fully and completely trust the process of bringing your vision to life.
Remember that when sh*t hits the fan and everything looks, feels and is quite literally falling apart–allow the clarity, vision, and impact of the work you are doing to rise above.
In the words of Dory from Finding Nemo, ‘just keep swimming,’ or in this case, just keep going.”