August 12, 2019

Life and Work with Amy Haderer

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Haderer.

Amy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I never, ever thought I would end up building tech. As a young child, I was always very creative. I knew I needed to be an artist, whatever that meant. Drawing, painting, sculpting, these were all important pastimes. Much to my father’s chagrin, I enrolled in art school and got a BFA in Illustration. When he told me how impractical an art degree was, I answered with “I’ll always be an artist, no matter what I do or become.”

When my future co-founder, Andy Drogo, hired me to be his doula back in 2013, I had no idea that this relationship would be a catalyst for the idea of Motherboard. Andy, a graphic designer, created a visual, graphics-based birth “plan” to share their priorities for the birth of their daughter. I thought it was a really amazing and innovative idea and shared it on my art page. It very quickly went viral and soon I had famous birth advocates like Penny Simkin asking to use it in their classes. I knew we were onto something!

Over the next five years, Andy and I began the excruciating process of building out our idea, creating hundreds and hundreds of pages of content, and looking for the right partners to build the platform I envisioned. Since neither of us are technical founders, finding someone who was fluent not only in tech but health tech and all the pitfalls that come along with it was imperative.

In March of 2019, we pitched our idea to Firepoint Studios (https://firepointstudios.com/), an all-inclusive health tech ecosystem based in Denver. They were excited about our idea, put in funds, and built our platform. We began building June of 2019, beta-tested in October and launched in November. Firepoint remains excited, invested partners in our team.

What I’ve been surprised to learn is that technology is actually extremely creative, it just uses a different medium. Finding solutions to UI/UX problems, design, etc. is so satisfying to me. And it helps that I still get to draw all our medical illustrations!

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s definitely been a difficult, oftentimes lonely road. Building Motherboard was the biggest thing I’ve ever done. I’m usually the type of person who just jumps in and finishes something, but building tech required that I rely on other people which was a difficult “gift” from the universe.

Lessons I’ve learned:
– Trust your intuition. Always.
– If your intuition is telling you something isn’t working out or someone isn’t a good fit, don’t wait, it just gets more painful.
– Beware of internalized sexism. Often the lessons we learn as young women (to not rock the boat, to always be polite, to not “nag”) do not serve us. Sometimes these messages come from outside ourselves, but sometimes it’s the voice in our own head.
– Keep. Going. There are often creative solutions to the most complex problems.
– Follow your curiosity, always.
– If it seems like the one negative voice is overpowering a hundred positive ones, write down every piece of positive feedback you receive and plaster it all over your house.
– Finally launching your company after years and years of blood, sweat, and tears can be absolutely terrifying. Something that only existed in your heart, that you slaved over, is suddenly out there in the world to be judged, adored, succeed or fail. Know the terror will pass.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I am a childbirth assistant (doula), artist, birth activist, mother of six, and founder of Motherboard Birth (www.motherboardbirth.com). Ever since the birth of my first daughter, I’ve been passionate about guiding families through the challenging landscape of their birth experience.

For over a decade, I’ve provided hands-on support to hundreds of families during the childbearing year. I saw a need for better education and better communication between parents and their care team. I am passionate about helping parents understand their options and make decisions based on the best available information.

I’m passionate about reducing disparities in maternal health outcomes by building tools for parents, tools for providers, and a platform to connect the two.

The US is a maternal health system in crisis:
– One out of three babies are born by cesarean (2-3x what the World Health Organization recommends)
– One out of three women describing their births as “traumatic”
– Maternal mortality rates are the worst of the developed world and are climbing (3-4x higher for women of color)

My goal may seem audacious, but Motherboard’s high tech/high touch platform is a timely tool as the US examines the complexity of maternal health.

Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
I’ve never quite “gone with the flow.” As a kid, I would become absolutely obsessed with something that I just wanted to figure out. Improving maternal health is like that for me now.

I’ve also been a really creative person my whole life, even as a kid. My motto is always “If you don’t see it, create it.”

Pricing:

Build your Motherboard – $50

Contact Info:

Website: www.motherboardbirth.com
Email: amy@motherboardbirth.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motherboardbirth/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/motherboardbirth/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/motherboardbrth
Other: https://app.motherboardbirth.com/topics

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