1x1 With Dr. Jessica Gaulton At FamilyWell

For Dr. Jessica Gaulton, building FamilyWell has always been about closing a gap she experienced firsthand — a gap that too many women still face today. By integrating mental health into the care women are already receiving, FamilyWell is creating a more connected, compassionate model that spans pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond. With a focus on women’s mental health, workforce innovation, and accessible care, the company is helping reshape how women are supported across the full reproductive journey.

In many cultures, postpartum challenges have long been brushed aside. People say things like, “Women have always done this, what is the problem?” Your work speaks directly to that gap. How did your own experience shape what you are building, and looking back, what do you wish had been different for you?

That was true for me too, even as a neonatologist. During fellowship, I had two babies while working in one of the busiest NICUs (neonatal intensive care units) in the country. I returned to work after a short maternity leave, in a new city, without much support, while spending my days caring for some critically ill newborns and then going home to care for my own children.

During one especially difficult night shift, it all caught up with me. I remember thinking, “I’m caring for other people’s babies, but I can barely hold things together for my own family.”

A colleague noticed and asked if I was OK. That changed everything. She had been through something similar and helped me find support.

Even as a physician, it took me months to find care, and it was neither specialized nor covered by insurance. That made it clear to me that the system was leaving women without the support they needed. That is what led me to start FamilyWell.

How did you come up with the idea for the FamilyWell Academy, and how does it help address the workforce shortage in women’s mental health?

I kept coming back to my own experience of being supported by a colleague during that time, and it made me realize just how powerful that kind of support can be.

That insight led us to build a coaching program, the FamilyWell Academy, which has become an important part of what sets us apart. We train and certify birth workers, lactation consultants, doulas, and other specialists who already support women during some of the most personal moments of their lives.

There are simply not enough therapists or psychiatrists to meet the need, and not every woman requires that level of care. Coaching can be incredibly effective, especially for women with mild to moderate symptoms. In that way, we are building a workforce that did not previously exist at scale, while bringing in the empathy and peer support that have so often been missing.

Our long-term goal is to make the FamilyWell Academy a place where women’s mental health providers, whether coaches, therapists, or psychiatrists, can come to train, specialize, and better support women across every stage of care.

Coaching was an important starting point, but FamilyWell clearly grew into something much broader. What makes the model different today?

FamilyWell is built on the idea that women’s mental health should be treated as essential care, not something separate from the healthcare system. Alongside coaching, women may also need therapy and, at times, medication management. We believe the best way to deliver that support is to make it part of the care women are already receiving, rather than sending them elsewhere to navigate it on their own.

That means a patient can access a coach, a therapist, a psychiatric provider, if needed, and ongoing support all within one connected model. The care is covered by insurance, continues throughout pregnancy and up to a year postpartum, and delivers meaningful outcomes. In fact, our data shows that women with depression and anxiety can achieve remission within four months.

FamilyWell began with a focus on the perinatal period. What led you to expand into other areas of women’s health?

We began with a focus on the perinatal period, working with women during pregnancy and through the first year postpartum. Over time, we kept hearing the same question from our clinic partners: What about other women?

The need was there for women navigating infertility, for women wanting to bring their partners into the conversation, and for women moving through perimenopause and menopause. It became clear that our work could not stop at the perinatal period.

Today, we care for women across the full reproductive spectrum, from conception and infertility to postmenopause. That expansion really came from listening closely to our OB-GYN partners and health systems and responding to what they were seeing every day.

In such a deeply personal area of care, where can artificial intelligence (AI) meaningfully make a woman’s experience easier or more connected, and where does the human relationship remain irreplaceable?

In this kind of care, the human relationship remains at the center. Women may benefit from technology, but in their most vulnerable moments, they still need empathy, trust, and real human connection.

Where AI can make a meaningful difference is behind the scenes. It can help with documentation, workflows, and coordination across care teams. Our model is highly multidisciplinary, with coaches, therapists, psychiatric providers, and care coordinators all working together, so communication matters tremendously.

We have integrated AI in ways that help streamline that coordination and reduce administrative burden. The goal is not to replace the human relationship but to make the experience more seamless and give our providers more time to focus on patients.

Where do you still see the biggest opportunity to improve care for women?

The demand is incredibly high, so one of the biggest opportunities is expanding access without compromising quality.

There is also a major opportunity in recognizing that women’s health is not one-size-fits-all. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health care expanded quickly, and many tech-enabled models were built on a more generalized approach. But women move through very different life stages, and their needs change accordingly.

The real opportunity is to build care that reflects those realities and meets women where they are.

Women’s health has historically been underfunded. As a founder building in this space, did you ever feel you had to shift how investors viewed the market?

Early on, especially at the pre-seed stage, I encountered real skepticism. More than once, I was told that I could not be a great doctor, mother, and CEO at the same time.

I did not let that change my vision. I never tried to reshape the model to fit what investors wanted to hear. Instead, I focused on finding the right partners — people who already understood that women’s mental health is a meaningful and underserved market.

Fundraising is never easy, especially in the current environment, but one of the biggest lessons for founders, particularly female physician founders and women founders more broadly, is how important it is to tell the story clearly. You can have a strong company and an important mission, but if you cannot explain the opportunity in a language that investors understand, they may miss it.

There is certainly more investment in women’s health today than there was before, but it still represents only a small share of overall funding. That means there is tremendous room for growth and a real opportunity to keep proving just how important this market is.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.