When I was in my third trimester, a friend of mine reached out to see if I’d be interested in beta testing a new app called Poppy Seed Health—an online pregnancy and postpartum support group. I couldn’t text “YES!” back fast enough. She connected me with Simmone Taitt, the founder of Poppy Seed Health who set me up with my own virtual team of experts filled with doulas, midwives and other pregnancy and postpartum support people. She affectionately referred to the group as my “Poppy Tribe” and I cannot even begin to express how much they helped me throughout my journey.
I was steadfast in my thinking that I wanted to have a natural birth and they helped me every step of the way. When I had doubts, they comforted me. When I had questions, they provided me with killer online resources. When I was being doubted by my OBGYN about my birth plan, they reminded me to trust in myself. Without a doubt, due to their support coupled with my doula’s, I was able to have the birth I wanted.
Then, I had my child and wound up back in the hospital a week later with postpartum preeclampsia. They helped me through the emotional component of it—they were that kind ear, that therapeutic voice I needed when I was alone in the hospital, away from my newborn baby.
And months later when I wasn’t healing properly from my natural tears during child birth, they led me to find a wonderful pelvic floor specialist who made an incredible difference, and virtually no less.
For all of those reasons and more, I wanted to share this Q&A with you.
Please meet Simmone Taitt, founder of Poppy Seed Health. She shares with us Poppy Seed’s mission, vision and practical ways to help mamas, like myself, through such a critical time in their lives.
Q: Why did you decide to launch Poppy Seed?
A: In 2016, I had the first of what would be multiple miscarriages and the interaction with my doctor was quick, cold and isolating. I did what so many women do and I turned to “Dr. Google” to find - of all things - comfort. The irony is that I found exactly what I was looking for and it came in the form of an online doula board.
I made two decisions that night. To become a birth doula, which I did last year, and to leverage the power of technology to bring together women seeking emotional and mental health support during their reproductive, pregnancy and postpartum journey together into a trusted and safe digital space.
Q: Your services may be needed more now than ever. How are you supporting moms through a global pandemic?
A: When the novel coronavirus started to take hold across the U.S., we reshuffled priorities and immediately focused on supporting our members - who are located all over the country - offering our services for 30 days free to all existing and new members so that support could be affordable and accessible for all.
What we care about most is supporting as many birthing and postpartum people as possible as emotional and mental health support have never been more important.
Q: What have you done differently now that COVID is impacting how women give birth?
A: Poppy Seed Health is a telehealth solution that has always been remote, so by design, we were able to quickly pull the levers we needed to support women in a soothing, organized and calming way.
On the other hand, we also support doulas, midwives and nurses that are on the other side of the text when you connect with us. While midwives and nurses are on the frontlines, many doulas have lost their clients. We made a decision to make an open call for doulas and grew that channel of support by over 50% to help them leverage our platform to continue to support mamas and earn a livelihood.
Q: How are you helping to support women emotionally if a partner can't be in the delivery room?
A: At the beginning of COVID, many hospitals weren’t allowing a support person in labor & delivery. Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order changing that in New York state to allow one support person in the room. But before his executive order was put into place, birthing people were in the position to choose between having their significant other by their side or their doula. Overall, it was a very emotional time.
Because our service is on-demand, we are virtually supporting our members during labor and delivery. Our approach allows for 2-3 doulas to support you through the entire birth experience, providing our members with their own “Poppy Tribe.”
Q: Tell me about your recent webinars and how you're reaching out to your community?
A: To further support women and their partners, we launched a series of webinars we are calling, “House Calls,” that cover COVID topics with experts. We have doctor, doula, midwife and nurse partners that host these webinars to keep everyone up-to-date on what’s happening on the ground.
We’ve also just launched “BYOB - Bring Your Own Belly, Baby, Boobies, Brain” which is more of a lifestyle webinar series where we have companies and brands join us on topics from sex to hair growth as it relates to the pregnancy and the postpartum journey - and you’ll always be rewarded for showing up with a little something from our partners. Our webinars are meant to be informative, impactful and inclusive.
To learn more about Poppy Seed, please visit https://www.poppyseedhealth.com/ and feel free to comment below.