Nina van Schaick
Preventing perineal birth injury during vaginal delivery with the world’s first automated perineal thermotherapy wearable.
Project
Peripear ltd
URL
Year founded
2024
Business stage
Pre-Seed
High-growth sectors
Life Sciences
Sector
Health
Location
South East England
Funding
Funded Award Winner
The problem and opportunity
Perineal trauma affects the majority of women giving birth vaginally, yet the tools available to prevent it haven’t changed in decades. Warm compresses, applied by hand by a midwife, are proven to reduce tearing and support better outcomes for mother and baby, but in overstretched maternity units, that one-to-one, sustained care isn’t deliverable at scale. The result is preventable trauma, longer recovery times and significant downstream costs to health systems.
The solution and innovation
Peripear has built the first automated perineal thermotherapy wearable, delivering consistent, hands-free warmth during labour without requiring continuous midwife time. The device translates a well-evidenced clinical intervention into a scalable product hospitals can deploy at the bedside. Protected by a granted patent, with a PCT filing underway, it is heading into a first-in-human study at the National University Hospital System in Singapore in 2027, alongside Prof. Mahesh Choolani.
Market and ambition
Our go-to market is B2B hospital sales, with Singapore as our clinical and commercial beachhead and the US as our primary market, representing a $490M opportunity across 2.4 million vaginal births a year. We are securing pilots with major US hospital systems, with pilot-to-procurement conversion built in, ahead of launch from December 2027.
Founder perspective
Nina van Schaick spent 14 years as a midwife before co-founding Peripear. Delivery after delivery, she saw how preventable perineal trauma was, and how little the standard of care had moved. Peripear was born from frontline experience: a product built by someone who lived the problem and knew there had to be a better care experience.
Women in Innovation Award
Recipient of an Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award 2025/26, receiving tailored business support, and access to specialist training and networks. View all winners and highly commended applicants from the Women in Innovation cohort 2025/2026.