Apple highlights Poppy Seed Health app for pregnancy care

Poppy Seed Health founder Simmone Taitt has told Apple how her need for information following her own first pregnancy loss, led to the app.

"I was in my doctor's office, and we couldn't find a heartbeat," Taitt said to Apple. "I left that appointment with no medical, emotional, or mental health support. I was just spinning for information. So I went to the internet."

Having previously worked in retail and now moving in to technology, she found an online doula message board. A doula is someone who provides guidance and help to pregnant women, and Taitt decided to become on herself.

"Everything I've done personally as a doula, between my own lived experiences and what I experience with my own clients, informs Poppy," she says. "From the way that we've built the technology, to the look and feel of the app."

Taitt launched Poppy Seed Health on the App Store in April 2021. It connects users to an entire network of doulas, midwives, and nurses.

Similar to a dating app, the app uses matching algorithms that get people the right care for them depending on where they are in their pregnancy. Taitt says the app will add matching people's preferences for languages, ethnicity, and LGBTQIA+ identification.

"It truly is the magic of what's going on in the background," said Taitt. "Users don't just get anyone, they get the person who can meet them where they are in the moments they need support the most."

Poppy Seed Health is a subscription service costing $29 per month on the App Store. Some 30% of users are on Medicaid, reports Taitt.

"I went from getting bit by the startup bug and loving technology, to truly building it myself," Taitt continues. "And understanding that technology is so much bigger than just the people who are actually building it. It's the entire ecosystem coming together to make technology accessible."