Under the Sisterhood
The Under the Sisterhood Podcast is where women's lived experiences become a catalyst for understanding, connection, and change.
Hosted by Elizabeth Elfenbein, each conversation invites women from around the world to share their stories with honesty, courage, and vulnerability. Together, they explore the moments that shape our lives—from health and mental wellness to leadership, identity, relationships, caregiving, equity, and the many experiences that define what it means to be a woman.
More than a podcast, Under the Sisterhood is a storysharing platform. Every conversation contributes to Women's Lived Experience Intelligence™, helping transform individual stories into insights that can shape healthcare, innovation, research, and culture.
At Under the Sisterhood, we believe every woman's story matters. Through storysharing, we create space for women to be seen, heard, valued, and celebrated—one conversation at a time.
Seasons & Special Editions
Season 1: Being a Woman in Today's World
Season 2: Women's March of Voices
Season 3: Women Making the World Healthier
Season 4: Women's March for Mental Wellness
Season 5: Women's March for Change
Special Editions: Under the Hood Vlogs • Women Investing in Women's Health • Women Making History
Produced by Matt Butler with original music by Ayla Schafer.
Under the Sisterhood
Malene Hegenberger on creating innovative solutions to support women during childbirth.
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Today we’re getting under the hood of Malene Hegenberger a mother, daughter, sister, friend, women’s advocate, innovator, midwife, and founder of Hegenberger Speculum.
Malene was educated as a licensed nurse in Denmark in 1998. After working in neonatal care at Kings College Hospital in London, she attended midwifery school in Bergen, Norway, completing her studies in 2002. She worked as a midwife and nurse in Norway, St.Kitts in the West Indies, Denmark, and the USA. She is currently a perineal specialist midwife at Slagelse Hospital in Denmark and is the inventor and developer of the Hegenberger Retractor. Malene is the second midwife to invent an obstetric tool since the French midwife Anne-Marie Boivin (17773-1841).
Malene founded the company HegenbergerSpeculum in 2017 and completed a successful exit of the Hegenberger Retractor in 2021 to a British company and is now the director of global training and Innovation for HegenbergerMedical.
Malene is teaching midwives and doctors in suturing post-partum tears in Denmark and is a role model for other entrepreneurs with good clinical products. Malene has a keen interest in innovation within female health and has been nominated as one of the InnoWomen in Denmark 2024. Malene is also a board member of the organization GRO in Denmark – an NGO organization and shelter for women living in an abusive relationship.
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