Showing Up Softly: The Humanitarian Heart of Prenatal Partners

By Pratiksha Boinapally

When I reflect on what it means to be a humanitarian, I don’t picture a sweeping global movement or a dramatic intervention. I picture one person showing up for another — quietly, consistently, and without conditions. That’s what Prenatal Partners is about.

Prenatal Partners is a medical student-led program that pairs pregnant individuals with student volunteers to provide emotional and social support throughout the pregnancy journey. While the idea may sound simple, its impact is deeply human. At the core of the program is a recognition that medical care, especially in pregnancy, does not always address the isolation, fear, or logistical hurdles that so many patients — particularly those from marginalized backgrounds — face alone.

My Schweitzer project aims to expand this program beyond its current home in the high-risk

Maternal-Fetal Medicine division at Michigan Medicine to community clinics across Washtenaw County. These are clinics that serve Spanish-speaking patients, undocumented individuals, and others who often fall through the cracks of traditional care systems. Through this expansion, we hope to bring support where it’s most needed — not only for medically complex cases, but for emotionally complex lives.

What makes this work humanitarian is not just who it serves, but how. We don’t pretend to have all the answers. We don’t offer medical treatment. Instead, we offer presence: someone to walk with you to your appointment, to text when you’re anxious about a test result, to sit beside you if you want company at your delivery. There is something radical about slowing down in a system that moves fast — about saying, “I’m here for you,” without needing anything in return.

This work also demands humility. Implementation hasn’t been fast or linear. I’ve faced logistical delays, administrative slowdowns, and my own competing responsibilities as a medical student. But these moments have only reinforced why I believe so deeply in this project. They have taught me that humanitarian work is often quiet and incremental — and that presence alone is a form of action.

More than anything, I hope this project becomes a lasting invitation for patients and medical students to step into a relationship that is grounded in care, built on trust, and responsive to real emotional need. In the end, humanitarian work isn’t always about saving lives. Sometimes, it’s about being willing to sit with someone during a life-changing moment and simply say, “You’re not alone.”

Pratiksha Boinapally is an Albert Schweitzer Fellow. She is a medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School. World Humanitarian Day is Aug. 19.