The goal of Poppy Seed Health is to connect underserved pregnant women to nurses, midwives and doulas who can offer on-demand assistance.
Simmone Taitt had a romanticized notion of her journey to motherhood — ups and downs, sure, but an overall beautiful experience. Then she had a miscarriage. What happened next changed the way she thought about compassionate health care, and inspired her to found a start-up, Poppy Seed Health, that aimed to support women the way she wished she had been supported.
According to Ms. Taitt, during a prenatal appointment the doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat. She “looked at me and said that my body had terminated the pregnancy, which was a dagger to the heart,” she said. “‘It’s normal and happens all the time,’” Mrs. Taitt recalls the doctor saying. “‘I will see you in a few months when you start trying again’ — and she left the room.”
That was the extent of the support Ms. Taitt received. “I gathered my things,” she said. “I was crying. I was devastated, and that was the most emotionally insensitive and shocking thing for me to hear.”
That would not be Ms. Taitt’s only miscarriage, and the pattern that emerged would propel her to take action: She didn’t want another pregnant person to endure the highs and lows of pregnancy and not feel supported. And so she founded Poppy Seed, which offers an app that connects pregnant women to on-demand support from nurses, midwives and doulas. These providers don’t offer medical advice, as Poppy Seed’s website notes, but Ms. Taitt believes their timely counseling offers a host of other benefits.
The company, based in New York City, now has about two dozen employees. The app has 400 users who collectively have logged about 50,000 hours of use, according to Ms. Taitt.
