Fascinating insight. I hope someone does solve this care gap - it is a special kind of brutality to leave women to their own devices during that most intense transformation without any care or support, requiring them to take their babies to the doctor without being checked on once themselves. Mothers and babies are one system. Check on the mother. I was lucky to do homebirth and have my midwives come to my house every week and check my health, coach me, make sure my mental wellbeing, relationships, physical health, lactation, and questions were answered as I crossed the threshold into motherhood. I see now why making this shift in care is more of an uphill battle than I previously thought, but imagine what it could do for maternal and child outcomes.
Kate, this perfectly captures what I wrote about - your midwife care shows what’s possible when we design around the reality that “mothers and babies are one system.”
The tragedy is that most women face exactly what you describe: being left to navigate that intense transformation alone. This startup saw the same gap you experienced, but underestimated how much of the healthcare stack they’d need to rebuild to deliver their solution sustainably.
Your framing of this as an “uphill battle” rather than impossible gives me hope. The need is real - the challenge is building business models that can deliver this care at scale within existing systems.
Thank you for sharing this case study! As we build solutions, it’s important to ask: are we building just for the solution itself, or also for the infrastructure that makes it sustainable? As a holistic health coach in the early stages of building my brand and offerings, this really resonates. I see clearly how broken our current healthcare system is and how health coaching can help fill the gaps, especially in the areas where doctors don’t have the time or capacity to support patients in making sustainable lifestyle changes. That said, I’ve noticed that some doctors are hesitant to refer out to health coaches, fearing their authority might be undermined. It’s something I think about often: how can I partner with the system, even when I see so much of it as fundamentally flawed?
Thanks so much for this, Laura. You’ve put your finger on a tension I think about a lot when deciding who to invest in. I look for founders who can work with the system without being swallowed by it; who know when to partner, when to push, and how to build something sustainable in that messy middle.
That tension is actually a core part of a framework I use with new investors and something I go deeper into in my book and investor course. I’d love to keep the conversation going as you grow your work. It’s clear you are building with care and strategy.
Fascinating insight. I hope someone does solve this care gap - it is a special kind of brutality to leave women to their own devices during that most intense transformation without any care or support, requiring them to take their babies to the doctor without being checked on once themselves. Mothers and babies are one system. Check on the mother. I was lucky to do homebirth and have my midwives come to my house every week and check my health, coach me, make sure my mental wellbeing, relationships, physical health, lactation, and questions were answered as I crossed the threshold into motherhood. I see now why making this shift in care is more of an uphill battle than I previously thought, but imagine what it could do for maternal and child outcomes.
Kate, this perfectly captures what I wrote about - your midwife care shows what’s possible when we design around the reality that “mothers and babies are one system.”
The tragedy is that most women face exactly what you describe: being left to navigate that intense transformation alone. This startup saw the same gap you experienced, but underestimated how much of the healthcare stack they’d need to rebuild to deliver their solution sustainably.
Your framing of this as an “uphill battle” rather than impossible gives me hope. The need is real - the challenge is building business models that can deliver this care at scale within existing systems.
Sitting here nursing my six week old and emphatically nodding my head!
Thank you for sharing this case study! As we build solutions, it’s important to ask: are we building just for the solution itself, or also for the infrastructure that makes it sustainable? As a holistic health coach in the early stages of building my brand and offerings, this really resonates. I see clearly how broken our current healthcare system is and how health coaching can help fill the gaps, especially in the areas where doctors don’t have the time or capacity to support patients in making sustainable lifestyle changes. That said, I’ve noticed that some doctors are hesitant to refer out to health coaches, fearing their authority might be undermined. It’s something I think about often: how can I partner with the system, even when I see so much of it as fundamentally flawed?
Thanks so much for this, Laura. You’ve put your finger on a tension I think about a lot when deciding who to invest in. I look for founders who can work with the system without being swallowed by it; who know when to partner, when to push, and how to build something sustainable in that messy middle.
That tension is actually a core part of a framework I use with new investors and something I go deeper into in my book and investor course. I’d love to keep the conversation going as you grow your work. It’s clear you are building with care and strategy.