Taking maternal wellbeing to a wider audience

After reaching the Black In Business final in 2025, Sandra Igwe MBE returned a year later to win with Mumbrite, a community app bringing expert-led maternal wellbeing support and community to mothers across the UK. She shares how her personal experiences inspired the business, what winning means for its future and her ambitions to scale its impact.

Read time: 3 mins  Added: 27/10/26

Sandra

From lived experience to business founder

Sandra has spent more than a decade supporting mothers through The Motherhood Group, the social enterprise she founded to improve outcomes for Black and ethnic minority mothers.

The idea grew from both professional insight and personal experience. Following the birth of her first daughter, Sandra experienced postpartum depression and struggled to find the support she needed. As The Motherhood Group grew from a WhatsApp community into a national organisation working with mothers, healthcare practitioners and policymakers, she saw the same challenges repeatedly emerge.

Through years of research, events and direct engagement with thousands of women, Sandra recognised a clear opportunity: to make trusted support, expert advice and community more accessible through technology. That vision led to the Mumbrite app.

"Mumbrite hasn't appeared overnight," Sandra says. "It's been powered by essentially a decade of learning, community building and service delivery.“

Screenshot of Mumbrite app

Today, the platform connects mothers with expert-led support, services and community in one place, while also enabling healthcare practitioners and wellbeing experts to reach those who need them most.

 

Sandra has spent more than a decade supporting mothers through The Motherhood Group, the social enterprise she founded to improve outcomes for Black and ethnic minority mothers.

The idea grew from both professional insight and personal experience. Following the birth of her first daughter, Sandra experienced postpartum depression and struggled to find the support she needed. As The Motherhood Group grew from a WhatsApp community into a national organisation working with mothers, healthcare practitioners and policymakers, she saw the same challenges repeatedly emerge.

Through years of research, events and direct engagement with thousands of women, Sandra recognised a clear opportunity: to make trusted support, expert advice and community more accessible through technology. That vision led to the Mumbrite app.

"Mumbrite hasn't appeared overnight," Sandra says. "It's been powered by essentially a decade of learning, community building and service delivery.“

Today, the platform connects mothers with expert-led support, services and community in one place, while also enabling healthcare practitioners and wellbeing experts to reach those who need them most.

From finalist to winner

Sandra first entered Black In Business in 2025 and reached the final. Rather than being discouraged by not winning, she used the experience and mentoring to strengthen her proposition. She refined the brand, carried out further market research and sharpened the commercial vision behind the community app before applying again.

"You are not above correction. You are not above tweaking, changing, altering.“ The changes paid off. In 2026, Sandra returned and won. For her, the recognition represents far more than a business award. "I think it's going to change the game for myself, Mumbrite and The Motherhood Group.“

As a winner, Sandra will receive £200,000 of TV advertising, a bespoke Channel 4 advert and six months of tailored business and marketing mentorship. She hopes the win will also encourage more founders to keep believing in their vision, even when success doesn't happen the first time around.

Building the next chapter for Mumbrite

Winning Black In Business comes at a pivotal moment for Mumbrite's growth. The online community now has more than 8,000 users and builds on The Motherhood Group's wider community of more than 18,000 mothers. Through programmes, partnerships and specialist support, Sandra is creating new ways for families to access trusted wellbeing resources.

Her immediate priorities are increasing awareness, growing the user base and securing the right investment to support the next phase of growth. She is also exploring a future membership model that will help sustain and expand the support available through the app.

Ultimately, Sandra wants to transform Mumbrite from a community-led solution into a leading maternal wellbeing technology business.

"I want more downloads, more visibility, more families using the platform and the right investors to help us scale."

Looking beyond the UK

Sandra's ambitions extend well beyond the UK. Long term, she sees opportunities to expand Mumbrite internationally, including into the US and UAE, bringing the platform's combination of expert support, culturally competent care and community to mothers in new markets.

But however large the business becomes, success comes back to the mums it was built for.

Sandra Igwe MBE, Founder, Mumbrite and The Motherhood Group

Seeing the advert, and knowing a mum who is struggling in the depths of motherhood might download the app and find community and expert support. For me, that means I've won.

Sandra Igwe MBE Founder, Mumbrite and The Motherhood Group

Tune in to Channel 4 in early 2027 to see Mumbrite’s Black In Business advert.

 
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