Girls Helping Girls

Simmone Taitt Creates a Start-up Company, Poppy Seed Health, In Hopes of Supporting Women Through Pregnancies & Miscarriages

After adapting to an unexpected miscarriage, Simmone Taitt created her own startup called Poppy Seed Health in order to connect and support women going through similar experiences. Simmone’s personal experiences have made her startup a vulnerable and intimate space that many women seek to relate to. When she found out about her miscarriage, her doctor was dismissive and she felt an immense amount of shock and sorrow, thus prompting her to understand the lack of care among healthcare professionals when it comes to pregnancies. As said in the New York Times Article: Can Telehealth Start-up Add Layer of Support to Pregnancy Care? Simmone felt “devastated, and that was the most emotionally insensitive and shocking thing for me to hear”. 

Poppy Seed Health is an app and online resource providing support for women throughout the entirety of their pregnancy journeys. The app does not take the place of doctors, but rather, is used as space for women to connect and receive counseling through. Her goal in creating this platform is to create “a solution to maternal health deserts.” (New York Times) The app can serve as a guide to all soon-to-be or current mothers. It can be especially helpful for those coming to terms with miscarriage, but also first-time child bearers. By having an information-filled platform that is offered online, Poppy Seed Health is accessible for many people in need. Carrying a child exceeds just doctor recommendations and checkups, and that is how Poppy Seed Health provides support. Many first-time expecting mothers do not know when they should book appointments or what the first steps to being pregnant are. This makes Poppy Seed Health a great resource for women of all kinds taking part in their journey or thinking of becoming pregnant. This site also reaches those who may not have sufficient access to healthcare. Many people of color have an increasingly difficult time bearing children as mentioned in the article in specific; “black women are three times more likely than white women to die during childbirth.” (New York Times) Overall, Poppy Seed Health is a universal tool that reaches all kinds of women at all different stages of pregnancy. 

As we begin to see more and more of our world become digitized, support groups continue to reach all kinds of people especially via social media and in the form of apps. While these groups may not be able to reach everyone, specifically those without access to a smartphone to download the app, we hope to see groups like these continue to come together in all different forms of support groups and help make a difference in the lives of women on a global scale. 

Sources:

Russell, Tonya. “Can a Telehealth Start-up Add a Layer of Support to Pregnancy Care?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/business/pregnancy-care-app-poppy-seed-health.html?searchResultPosition=26. 

Poppy seed health. https://www.poppyseedhealth.com/

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