The Next Era of Telehealth with June Motherhood, Your Virtual Partner in Pregnancy
June Motherhood is on a mission to empower women to be the happiest, healthiest, most confident mothers they can be. June is a digital maternal care company offering virtual, small group care led by experienced certified Doulas. June supports mothers with evidenced-based information, personalized care, and convenient support from pregnancy through postpartum and beyond. A monthly membership with June includes expert Doula support, virtual small group meetings biweekly with other expecting moms at the same stage of pregnancy, and text support from your doula to answer your questions.
Founders’ Backgrounds:
Tina Beilinson: Tina is a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School and the CEO and Co-Founder of June Motherhood. Prior to HBS, Tina worked at Warby Parker where she led the national and international expansions of their retail presence, large strategic initiatives, and the launch of major growth projects like vision insurance via UnitedHealth Group and their optical telemedicine offering. She has intimate knowledge of the telehealth space and the intricacies of launching across the fragmented regulatory landscape in the U.S.
Julia Cole: Julia is a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School and the COO and Co-Founder of June Motherhood. Julia came to HBS after working in Strategy and Operations consulting in New York and then as an early member of KIND Healthy Snacks strategy team. At KIND, Julia worked directly with the President and COO to implement key revenue driving initiatives, including developing the first ever strategic plan, optimizing retail partnerships, and designing operational processes.
Sophia Richter: Sophia is a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School and is Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of June Motherhood. Prior to June, Sophia worked across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She was Assistant Vice President of Strategy for the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) where she designed large scale public private-partnerships to grow the New York innovation economy and expand access to jobs. In the years prior, she was a Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group where she focused on consumer and pharmaceuticals.
Moment of Inspiration:
Tina, Julia and Sophia all met during a Startup Bootcamp at HBS in their first year. They quickly bonded over their shared interest in women’s health. Tina came to HBS to start a business and was focused on identifying co-founders during her time back in school. Initially, Julia and Sophia had paired together to ideate on the fertility space. Tina recalled:
“Eventually we joined forces after spending time supporting each other and having countless conversations on the gaps in women’s healthcare during the early phases of our entrepreneurial journeys.”
When asked about the moment of inspiration for June Motherhood, Tina states:
“There’s a misconception that a woman’s pregnancy is always a very happy time but what we found is that while yes, it can be very happy, there are also many women that feel anxious and lonely. Especially in the early days — when you may not be telling people you are pregnant out of fear you’ll miscarry. Many woman are stuck googling questions they have when they are at the phase before they begin consistently meeting with their OB.”
Newly pregnant women would like support but that support can often be costly. And while some women would like a doula’s presence during labor, other women really just want someone they can rely on for questions and a group to lean on that is at the same place.
Enter June Motherhood.
According to June’s site, “Doula care is one of the most impactful, cost-effective ways to improve maternal health outcomes. And yet, Doulas are hard to find and can be expensive. We believe virtual, group-based Doula care can make high quality prenatal and postpartum support more accessible and affordable for everyone.”
June has a larger vision in mind as well. The traditional concept of doula support is limited to labor, birth and sometimes the period shortly thereafter. But June has a more holistic vision in mind for supporting women as they become mothers that includes nutrition, lactation consulting, and physical therapy.
One of my favorite parts about this model? 1 in 7 women experience postpartum depression and only about 15% are treated. June’s small group model provides a support system of likeminded women (June matches you to a group with similar goals for doula support) that undoubtedly will help you feel connected during this period of physical and emotional transition.
Customer Research and Member Profile:
Tina feels strongly that June Motherhood is reaching a much wider array of women than the traditional subset of expecting mothers that seek out doula support for labor. In general, she mentions that the persona of their member is a woman that is anxious about a certain aspect of her pregnancy, birth or post-partum life.
There are many reasons for a woman to feel anxious but a few are driven by societal and medical trends. Modern families lack the same support structure that has historically existed where you live in close proximity to other members of your extended family. Fertility data support that more single women are electing to have children on their own, which may drive women to seek out more emotional support during her pregnancy. On the medical front, OB visits are infrequent during the first trimester and those that follow thereafter tend to be around 15 minutes, leaving very little room for non-medical support and advice that is personalized.
When asked about the customer research that informed the creation of June Motherhood, Tina mentioned early interviews with expecting mothers.
“They were overwhelmed by the amount of information but had no way to interpret if it was reliable or evidence-based. Additionally, women in the early stages of pregnancy lacked community.”
June solves for both information and community needs through its novel care model. Doulas provide personalized information to you based on your unique concerns and their experience helping hundreds of women prepare for birth. Additionally, the small group aspect of June offers a chance for women to broach topics that they typically wouldn’t discuss with doctors. Tina recalls one of their beta members referring to how helpful the group was for discussing her need to establish boundaries with in-laws. Other common concerns are also addressed at the group level, everything from how to include your partners effectively in your pregnancy journey to how to sleep more comfortably!
Co-Founder Sophia leads all customer-facing work with June Motherhood and speaks directly with June members constantly about their experiences. Her quote below speaks to the value that women get from their doula support and their small group pairings.
“Being so close to the customer is one of my favorite parts of founding an early stage company. Women come to June looking for the expert advice, and while getting that advice from our talented providers, they fall in love with our community of moms.”
The Inner Workings:
June is available to women in the earliest days of their pregnancy at $75 a month. Mothers are typically members for the duration of their pregnancy and through postpartum. The monthly fee includes unlimited text support, a 1-on-1 appointment with a doula to better understand your pregnancy goals, and then biweekly virtual sessions with a small group of women at similar stages of their pregnancy. You can quit at any time, no questions asked. This month, June launched a beta post-partum support group as well to give new mothers the opportunity to continue meeting with a group and a doula to navigate the challenges of physically recuperating and caring for a newborn.
Having led payer partnership efforts for Warby Parker, Tina is optimistic about the ability for women to eventually get doula support via June Motherhood covered either through their insurance or company fertility and family health benefits. More research is coming out about the impact of doulas on birth outcomes, including the role they play in decreasing C-Section rates and reducing labor time and preterm births. All of which may translate to cost savings or cost-effectiveness and closer management of high-risk pregnancies.
The Virtual Doula Model and Creating a Two-Sided Platform
When asked about the doula community, Tina emphatically states:
“The doula community is so beautiful and extremely mission-oriented. You have to be really passionate about helping moms to do this work.”
June Motherhood offers doulas who had previously been relatively limited to the small radius around where they resided, to provide their services and support virtually — something that has become extremely important at the time of writing this post in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
June has had strong inbound interest from doulas as they solve for a few key challenges in the doula profession. Typically, doulas work with between 4–5 women at a time given that they need to be available to join them for labor. June’s two-sided platform, in which mothers are paired with highly experienced doulas and doulas are able to find and serve more expecting mothers, enables doulas to share their years of experience with more women.
June’s top priority is to create a high-quality program for women and superior programming is rooted in hiring the best and most seasoned doulas. June carefully screens all doulas and looks for women that have experience across 100+ births and that have served over 60 women and their families. Their expert doulas are unequivocally supportive of all types of birth and are available to provide unbiased opinions based on their wide-ranging experience. Their early team of doulas has been closely engaged in the creation of June’s educational content and information provided during different stages of pregnancy. Tina mentions that while their programming is consistent, each doula has their own voice, style and method of delivery — enabling the team to pair them with the women who will benefit most from their approach.
Their Competitive Moat?
Curated programming and expertise powered by their seasoned doula partners and the incredible feedback of their beta members. Tina, Julia and Sophia partner closely with doulas to understand key topics and also let the small groups of women identify areas of interest.
Timely and Timeless:
Timely: When chatting with Tina, I reflected on the fact that June’s work is so critical as we ride the wave of #socialdistancing in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tina commented:
“People aren’t used to virtual doula care but in the past few days, we have seen a spike in interest, reaffirming the need for telehealth options to access support.”
June Motherhood is well-positioned to support anxious mothers at this time and they are currently offering a virtual childbirth education class. For women giving birth in the coming weeks, June Motherhood has committed to helping women prepare given unexpected circumstances such as limited visitors being able to join them as they go into labor.
In Tina’s words:
“We will be working to prepare mothers for that moment and give them the tools that they need in advance of their delivery.”
Timeless: Innovative creators like Tina, Julia, Sophia and their team of doulas uniting to support women via modern care pathways. Women have supported the childbirth process of fellow women for millennia — and now we can do that virtually while still maintaining the community spirit. More on telemedicine applications for pregnancy here.
