My name is Lindsey and I’m the founder of Loula. We’re building Loula because we care about dramatically increasing access to doula care in the United States. Doula care quite literally saves lives, and the Loula team wants to make it easier for them to do so.

The U.S. maternal mortality rate is 32.9 per 100,000 live births, meaning the U.S. has the worst maternal mortality rate amongst similarly wealthy countries. These numbers look worse for Black and Brown birthing folks, and they’re getting worse every year.

Increasing access to doula care is one of the primary ways that we can decrease the maternal mortality rate. Many states in the U.S. have rolled out Medicaid coverage of doula services to address this need. The problem is that most doulas operate independently and typically operate outside of the traditional healthcare system. Taking on insurance acceptance is an incredible burden for them — the paperwork, admin, calling insurance carriers, checking eligibility, and waiting months to receive payment make it extremely challenging for doulas to go in-network. That’s where Loula comes in. We want to make accepting Medicaid clients as easy as accepting private clients.

I grew up in Alabama in a “healthcare family” and saw firsthand how racial inequities negatively impact health outcomes. I studied Computer Science at Stanford University and went on to become a software engineer at top tech companies like Lyft and Stripe. I’ve always known that I wanted to make healthcare more accessible through my work, so I’m now using my skillset to support doulas in sustainably providing accessible care to their communities.