Today we’d like to introduce you to Meghan Doyle.
Hi Meghan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
During my own pregnancy and postpartum experience, I was struck by the glaring gaps in care outside of my OB’s office. Finding the right support – for breastfeeding challenges, physical recovery from childbirth, mental health, and other issues – felt overwhelming and required a lot of time and attention (that I didn’t have once my newborn came along). It was clear that this wasn’t just my experience, friends and family navigated the same struggles.
Once I started doing research on the topic, the outcomes data in maternal health in the US painted an even more bleak picture – poor outcomes overall and devastating disparities. Around the world, better models exist – built around continuous and whole person support in pregnancy and postpartum, with a connected network of resources. I knew we needed to bring more support to families here.
Beyond the personal experience I had spent several years working with health systems and payers as a consultant with Boston Consulting Group, which helped me design a model that could work with our complicated healthcare system while remaining simple for families.
I teamed up with my cofounder, Matt Rogers, who navigated his own difficult path to parenthood and postpartum with twins, and we quickly brought on Dr. Melissa Dennis, an OB with over 20 years of clinical and health system leadership, to help launch Partum Health. Partum Health is a hybrid maternal health clinic offering in-person and virtual specialty care – mental health, lactation, nutrition, physical therapy, and doula support – to improve outcomes, reduce complications, and make high-quality perinatal care accessible and seamless for families.
We started small, serving families in a pilot, and by 2022 began contracting with health plans to move closer towards our mission: delivering elevated care for every woman and family. Since then, we have continued to see rapid growth – expanding from Chicago into Houston and Dallas, maintaining an Net Promoter Score score of 90+, and building a model that families and providers deeply value.
Our vision is simple: make this level of care the standard, not the exception.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road, like any innovative idea in healthcare we have faced obstacles. Since we’re introducing a new approach to care we have to start with a lot of patient and provider education that changes the conversation and encourages patients to get proactive about their health.
We also face the challenge in navigating reimbursement for our services on behalf of our patients. While insurance coverage for care like lactation and mental health support is improving, it’s still not universal. So we have to balance the ability to build the business and make it sustainable with the spottiness of healthcare coverage.
What makes it possible to overcome these obstacles is having our entire team is so fully dedicated and invigorated by our mission to improve care for expecting and new families.
Although there have been struggles along the way, our entire team is so fully dedicated and invigorated by our mission that we navigate challenges with passion and excitement.
One of our biggest challenges has been addressing workforce shortages in our specialty areas. Recruiting and retaining top clinical talent is tough across the industry, and we have been very thoughtful about creating an exceptional provider experience while staying competitive in a market where many are shifting toward cash-pay models. This is especially true for the doula workforce – as new reimbursement pathways through Medicaid and employer benefits make doula care more accessible, demand is rapidly outpacing supply. To stay ahead of this, we launched our own doula training and certification program, which allows us to grow and strengthen the doula workforce, while maintaining the quality and consistency families count on.
Another challenge has been the inherent logistical complexity of our care delivery model. The timing and duration of birth is unpredictable, and providing in-person care means navigating variable service areas, travel times, and scheduling intricacies. We’ve built strong in-house systems to manage this complexity, and are excited about the potential to further streamline operations by integrating AI and other tech solutions as we scale.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I lead Partum Health, combining my background in healthcare and strategy with a personal passion for supporting women and families. The idea for Partum came from my experience cobbling together (and often going without) essential care before and after the birth of my two children. That experience made it impossible for me to ignore how fragmented and inequitable perinatal care can be in this country.
Before launching Partum, I spent several years at Boston Consulting Group, supporting leading payers, providers, and health services organizations on growth and strategy initiatives. My work included value-based care program design, post-merger integration for large health systems, and patient insights and experience work. I also spent time as an early team member at a pediatric Cognitive Behavioral Therapy startup called Doctor Lullaby and started out in consumer marketing.
I hold an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from UNC-Chapel Hill.
What I’m most proud of is building Partum Health and creating a company that’s making elevated, comprehensive perinatal care more accessible, while supporting an incredible team of clinicians and care providers. It’s personal work for me, and I feel lucky to get to do it every day.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I come from a big, Irish Catholic family and spent many of my childhood weekends celebrating birthdays and holidays with my parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. With so many people and big personalities, these gatherings were anything but dull – always full of energy and food and fun. There were also the occasional fireworks over a heated game or discussion (we still play Left Right Center around a big table every Thanksgiving and now my own kids participate). As one of the older cousins I spent a lot of those gatherings looking after babies, toddlers, and younger kids in the families. I always loved the special mix of chaos and feel so lucky to have been surrounded by my family.
Pricing:
- All of our clinical services – including behavioral health, lactation consulting, physical therapy, and nutrition – are in-network with BlueCross BlueShield PPO, Aetna PPO, and Cigna PPO plans.
- Doula care is paid out of pocket, but families can use HSA/FSA funds and employer-sponsored benefits (e.g., Carrot and Maven) to help cover costs. Prenatal and birth doula packages start at $800 and postpartum doula care is available by the hour.
- Full information is available on our website (partumhealth.com) and you can call or text us at 877-381-5221 to learn more or get started
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.partumhealth.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/partumhealth/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/partum-health/
- Other: https://www.partumhealth.com/care/dallas-texas-doula
