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The Vision 

haPPIE™ stands for holistic approach to Patient and Public Involvement and Evaluation.

 

We are not just another initiative—we are a movement for change.

 

Our work focuses on four core areas:

      Saving Lives: Providing personalised antenatal education and essential resources.

      Connecting Communities with Services: Ensuring people receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

      Providing a Lens to Wider Issues: Using lived experiences to improve services and prevent poor health outcomes.

      Amplifying Community Needs: Embedding patient voices into research, service design, and healthcare training.

 

We create real-world impact through education, collaboration, and research to make healthcare more inclusive and effective.

Born from a passion for improving maternity care, The Essential Baby Co CIC empowers families, community leaders, and professionals. Inspired by personal experiences, we provide knowledge, tools, and resources to support mothers and babies with compassionate, evidence-based care.

Change

Gemma Poole is the CEO of The Essential Baby Co CIC and a natural-born changemaker dedicated to transforming community health. As a registered midwife and award-winning college lecturer, she turned her frustration with inadequate maternity care into a mission to address health inequities in underrepresented communities. Gemma creates inclusive environments by developing, distributing, and delivering co-produced tools that educate and empower both healthcare professionals and the communities they serve. Her pioneering work includes the award-winning haPPIEĀ® initiative, which rebalances power between patients and providers to revolutionise health education. Beyond her leadership roles in innovation and women's health, Gemmaā€™s impact extends through ventures such as The Essential Baby Company Ltd and The Essential Baby Co CIC, where she champions equity, safer pregnancies, and healthier outcomes. Additionally, her roles as an NHS Core20 Ambassador fellow, the first NHS Maternity User Researcher, and Clinical Entrepreneur Ambassador underscore her commitment to collaboration, innovation, and social justice in healthcare.

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