When Nathalie Walton struggled through a high-risk pregnancy and “nearly died in childbirth,” her amazing health coverage through her Silicon Valley employer and access to wellness resources helped her through.
“I was going into the doctor probably several times a week,” Walton said.
She wrote about her experience via Medium also detailing how she leaned into the Expectful app to help ease her stress.
“The point where I started using Expectful, I started seeing my results stabilize,” she said.
However, as a Black woman, she wondered how other Black women who didn’t have top-notch health coverage and access to maternal wellness services navigated their own pregnancy challenges.
“I kept thinking to myself ‘How do people who don’t have access to these resources survive?'” she said. “The reality is Black maternal health outcomes are abysmal. The rate of Black mothers dying in childbirth is 3-4 times that of white mothers.”
Shortly after giving birth, she partnered with Expectful and began advising them. She loved the work she was doing and formed a close professional relationship with the CEO, who had been quietly looking for a successor. He asked her to replace him as CEO and she jumped at the opportunity.
Now, she’s focused on helping all expecting mothers find health, wellness, and peace of mind. She’s also working to bring resources to communities that are cut off from them, even if this involves giving away Expectful memberships for free.
Walton said the app is aimed to help people who are trying to conceive all throughout their parenthood journey. She also revealed that it offers meditations focused on all stages of parenthood including preconception, each week of pregnancy, breastfeeding, and sleeping for new moms.
Expectful is already seeing an enthusiastic response from consumers including an Instagram following of 158,000. They’ve also partnered with Johnson and Johnson in their Helping Hands program to give memberships to anyone in need. Mothers can also email Expectful directly to request a need-based free membership.
“I want to connect with more organizations that work with Black mothers so that we can get Expectful in the hands of Black mothers,” Walton said.
In October, they’ve also offered free access to their Healing Libray in honor of Miscarriage and Infant Loss Awareness Month. They created these meditations in collaboration with bereavement counselors to specifically support those who are managing grief after losing an infant or suffering a miscarriage.
Learn more about Expectul here.
