Support without limits: Doctor duo flexes scrub design that’s a dream for women, mothers-to-be

A pair of Kansas City doctors diagnosed a chronic need in maternity and versatility care for women — turning to entrepreneurship to prescribe “bump to pump” comfort and flexibility through a new line of scrubs.

“Being physicians, we want to continue to help people,” said Dr. Christine Khong, who co-founded Vervee Scrubs alongside Dr. Melanie Camejo. “And it really came from a place of need.”

“I’ve seen plenty of people being pregnant where I work and nothing is comfortable enough,” added Camejo, who noted her co-founder was among those mothers who lacked comfy options. “So we kind of made it our mission to make sure that we could do something to make women feel beautiful and then have easy accessibility when pumping or feeding their child at work.”

Fitting design for a growing need

Vervee’s patent-pending scrubs improve on the fabric and designs already available on the market for maternity scrubs, the friends-turned-co-founders said. 

“It’s this slick, stretchy, comfortable, very versatile fabric,” explained Khong, who was able to wear the Vervee scrubs during her second pregnancy and now during postpartum. “We spent a lot of time making sure the fabric was just perfect.”

“And our design is pretty unique in that the belly band is the same material as the rest of the scrubs,” she continued. “Often other companies will make the belly band in a very uncomfortable material that doesn’t stretch as you get more pregnant.”

“It’s very supportive,” added Camejo, who wore their prototype scrubs during her first pregnancy and is wearing the latest version during her current pregnancy. “So a lot of people, when they use our belly band (scrubs), they feel like they have an actual belly band on like the separate ones that you could wear. So that was our goal, to make it so that women could feel supported while having the same stretchy material as the pants.”

A zipper on the scrubs’ top also sets the design apart, they said. Other women — like those with insulin pumps and colostomy bags — also can benefit from the zipper access.

After all, Vervee’s scrubs aren’t just for pregnant and postpartum women, the co-founders said, noting they also have a line without the zipper and belly band.

“I would say almost half of our customers are probably not pregnant or not nursing,” Khong continued. “I think it’s just, again, the fit and the comfort. Even when you’re on your menstrual cycle and you feel more bloated, I think there’s a little bit of extra comfort with the scrubs, too.”

“Our scrubs don’t have a tie, so there’s nothing limiting your waist,” Camejo said. “So it’s very stretchy. People need that stretch and get that stretch.”

“I know someone who’s going through menopause, and she’s like, ‘This is great. It cools me off really fast,’” she continued. “So everyone’s loving the comfort of it.”

A post shared by vervee scrubs (@verveescrubs)

Interwoven support system

The idea and the design for the scrubs was a true collaboration between the friends, they shared. After watching Khong go through her first pregnancy and thinking about having a baby herself, the concept came to Camejo in a dream, she said.

When she texted Khong about it, Khong told Camejo that she had an idea for the zipper top.

“So we sat down and we really talked about it,” Camejo recalled. “And our husbands, they’re like, ‘You never know what can happen if you don’t try.’ So we just decided to run with it.”

Drs . Christine Khong and Melanie Camejo, Vervee Scrubs; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Since then, Khong said, it’s been a learning journey — about e-commerce, marketing, fabrics, even tariffs.

“We just knew medicine. That was all we knew,” she explained. “And so just learning this together has been really fun.”

But balancing being doctors, entrepreneurs, and moms of young children isn’t always easy, they confessed. It helps having a supportive village around them, they noted, including their husbands – David Camejo and Kevin Tran (both also doctors) — who help keep them organized and help with the finances.

“We take it day by day,” Camejo continued. “It’s very hard; it’s very stressful. But I feel like just waking up with the right mindset is super important; making sure that we’re filling our own cups before trying to fill the cups of others has been super important for us.”

“And then there’s keeping each other in check,” she said. “Some days I’ll have low days. I’m like, ‘Hey, Christine, I’m not feeling it.’ She’ll pump me up and vice versa.”

“It’s a team effort,” Khong added. “We balance each other out really well with our husbands, as well. All of us work full time, and so we just tag team every email, every meeting, and really just make it happen.”

Now that it’s been five months since Vervee’s launch, the co-founders are focusing on exposure in the Kansas City market — starting with Vervee recently named a Small Business Superstar by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s all about the branding, the loyalty, just hearing our story, and then we’re hoping that sales will come after that,” Khong explained. “Eventually we hope to continue to add more colors, then more styles, and maybe even a men’s line.”

“The men are asking.”

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