RACINE — Nicole Urquhart, founder of Baby Express, will make a big pitch to the moguls during this Saturday’s episode of “Project Pitch It.”
Urquhart started Baby Express after learning about the difficulties pregnant women and parents of young children face in transporting themselves and their families to medical appointments.
She started Baby Express, which provides medical transportation for pregnant women and families of young children, to ensure expecting mothers can make it to their prenatal appointments and take their children to their doctor’s appointments as well.
Since starting Baby Express in 2010, Urquhart has expanded beyond transportation services, offering infant-related health services and products like baby food, breast pumps, lactation coaching and even services that extend beyond the mother, such as offering support to other family members.
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Urquhart will present Baby Express on the fourth episode of the eighth season of “Project Pitch It.” To watch it, tune in to WISN-TV 12 on Saturday, April 13 at 10:35 p.m.
How it all started
Urquhart likes to say that Baby Express was born July 1, 2010, after seeing former president Barack Obama in Racine at Memorial Hall.
After Obama had a brief conversation with Urquhart’s daughter, who was volunteering at the event, Urquhart spoke to Obama about why they were attending the event and how she had recently been laid off from her job as a health teacher at Racine Unified School District.
He then told her that she might be interested in attending a community meeting, which was the first time Urquhart was introduced to the term infant mortality — when a baby dies before their first birthday. She also learned that Racine had an especially high infant mortality rate.
At the meeting, Urquhart learned three main things: The majority of infant mortality deaths in Racine were from premature births; many expecting mothers were not going to their prenatal appointments because they had no way of getting there; and Medicaid and WIC were underutilized in Racine County.
With her background as a transportation specialist in the Air Force — where she transported families to medical appointments — Urquhart knew she had the opportunity to make a difference.
Urquhart’s primary goal for Baby Express is to get pregnant women to their OB appointments in their first trimester.
“We know that as soon as we get them to an OB in their first trimester, the likelihood of having a healthy pregnancy is much greater,” she said.
“From 2010, we’ve been 14 years strong. We’ve taken over 10,000 families to medical appointments — not just in Racine, but anywhere in southeast Wisconsin,” she said.
Helping the entire household
Since Baby Express started, its services have expanded beyond offering transportation to medical appointments.
After a family returns from the hospital, they provide wellness boxes with cleaning supplies, ready-to-eat meals, diapers and breast pumps.
Through their partnership with Racine County’s Commute to Careers program, Baby Express also helps families transport to their employment, so long as they are still attending their medical appointments.
“We transport 20 families daily, to get to their medical appointments — also to job interviews and to employment,” said Urquhart. “So we do about 100 trips a week.”
What is “Project Pitch It”?
“Project Pitch It” is essentially Wisconsin’s version of Shark Tank.
Presented by UW-Milwaukee’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center, “Project Pitch It” allows local entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to moguls who question, advise and challenge the participants, helping them take their venture to the next level.
In each episode, three entrepreneurs are featured, with an opportunity to win weekly awards valued at more than $40,000.
The moguls are Jerry Jendusa, co-founder of Breakthrough Strategies; Harris Turer, principal owner of the Milwaukee Admirals Hockey Club; Gale Klappa, WEC Energy Group executive chairman; David Gruber, founder and CEO of Gruber Law Offices; Jamie Andrzejewski, founder and owner of Nourish Natural Products; Ryan Povlick, founder and co-owner of Scratch Ice Cream and Steven Gruber, an attorney at Gruber Law Offices.