What happens to ErgoMama after graduation — the maintenance plan, the roadmap for products and translations, the research questions it opens, and the paths for getting it into more hands.
ErgoMama is a doctoral capstone project, but it isn’t built to end at the defense. The site is inexpensive to maintain, the content is designed to age well, and the roadmap below is what turns a one-time deliverable into an ongoing occupational-therapy resource for new mothers.
One of the design goals from the start was affordability. The full annual maintenance cost fits inside what a single continuing-education course might charge.
Total annual cost: under $50/year to keep the site live and reachable for every mom who finds it.
Where ErgoMama grows after the capstone defense — from the website that exists today to the product family and program pathways it opens.
The current 19-page site, printable handouts, and installable web app are the immediate deliverable — free, evidence-anchored, ready to share.
Short educational videos on the site’s existing slots. One or two clinic partnerships piloting the handouts in waiting rooms and discharge packets.
The ErgoCube prototype tested with real caregivers. Spanish translations of highest-impact handouts. Conference-poster submissions.
ErgoDots, Stretch Die, Lift Guide tag; a For-Providers presentation kit; broader dissemination through TOTA, AOTA, and community programs.
ErgoMama’s own literature review names four gaps in the current evidence base. The site is a first response to those gaps — each also becomes a future research direction for the profession.
The pain-posture-depression association is documented but no trial has yet tested whether ergonomic education reduces both. This is the highest-value study ErgoMama’s content directly enables.
Anchored to Ansai et al. (2016); Gutke et al. (2007)
Most postpartum MSK studies are cross-sectional. A longitudinal usability study of ErgoMama users would help fill the gap.
Anchored to Sanders & Morse (2005); Havens & Siddicky (2025)
Almost no experimental testing exists on caregiver-facing ergonomic products. The ErgoCube and future product family are prototypes ready for that testing.
Anchored to Clamann et al. (2012); this project’s ErgoCube brief
The partner-support RCT shows partner involvement reduces maternal stress. What specific caregiving handoffs matter most for maternal recovery is still open.
Anchored to husband support-education RCT (2023, BMC Women’s Health)
The site is the first step. Real-world reach comes from professional and community channels, some already in motion.
Submissions to the Texas Occupational Therapy Association and AOTA annual conferences — capstone-friendly formats that reach thousands of clinicians.
OB, midwifery, pediatric, and WIC offices adopting the printable handouts and the QR-linked site as patient-education companions.
A short piece for OT Practice on perinatal OT as an emerging niche; a possible AJOT submission on the intervention itself.
ErgoMama is designed to be a long-term resource, not an academic artifact that goes offline the week after graduation. As the site’s creator, I intend to keep it live, updated with new evidence as it emerges, and free for as long as it serves the mothers and clinicians who use it.
— Erin Goodwin, OTD candidate