Maternal Wealth Podcast - Own Your Birth
The Maternal Wealth Podcast creates a collective space for sharing all birth-related stories. I want to acknowledge birth's uniqueness, honor its variations, and remind us of the power we hold in giving birth.
As a Labor and Delivery Nurse, I see the impact of our stories. Let's share those stories with those who come after us to prepare them for what's to come. For those who came before us, allowing them to reminisce and heal as we realize we were not alone in our experiences.
Maternal Wealth is currently streaming in twenty-five countries: New Zealand, Australia, Slovakia, Canada, Finland, South Africa, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Rwanda, Poland, India, Sweden, Germany, Puerto Rico, China, Italy, Denmark, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Spain, Greenland, Cyprus, Tanzania and the United States.
Maternal Wealth Podcast - Own Your Birth
From Academic to Entrepreneur: Building Mental Health Support for New Mothers with Tara
Dr. Katrina Roundfield's journey from academic psychologist to maternal mental health entrepreneur begins with a startling revelation: despite her extensive training, nothing prepared her for the overwhelming anxiety that gripped her after giving birth to her son.
The stark contrast between prenatal and postpartum care represents a healthcare crisis hiding in plain sight. Women receive approximately 700 minutes of prenatal attention but only 30 minutes of postpartum care, precisely when 80% experience significant emotional distress. This gap inspired Dr. Roundfield to create Tara, an innovative app that supports mothers through matrescence —the profound biological and psychological transformation of becoming a mother.
"I kept thinking about what would have helped me during my postpartum experience," Dr. Roundfield reflects, noting that traditional therapy wasn't the answer. With a newborn, limited time, and symptoms that didn't quite reach clinical thresholds, she found herself in healthcare limbo, struggling without clear pathways for support. This experience mirrors countless mothers who track every feeding and diaper change obsessively, spiral into anxiety, and isolate themselves while trying to navigate a profound identity shift with minimal guidance.
Tara fills this void by offering science-backed tools that acknowledge the neurobiological reality of matrescence. The app provides practical mental health techniques, educational resources on maternal brain changes, and a community moderated by mental health professionals—all designed to accommodate the constraints of new motherhood. Named after the Buddhist goddess considered the mother of all Buddhas, Tara embodies the philosophy that mothers already possess what they need to thrive; they simply require support during this transformative transition.
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Welcome to the Maternal Wealth Podcast, a space for all things related to maternal health, pregnancy and beyond. I'm your host, stephanie Terrio. I'm a labor and delivery nurse and a mother to three beautiful boys. Each week, week, we dive into inspiring stories and expert insights to remind us of the power that you hold in childbirth and motherhood. We're here to explore the joys, the challenges and the complexities of maternal health. Every mother's journey is unique and every story deserves to be told.
Stephanie Theriault:Please note that this podcast is for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your healthcare provider for medical guidance that is tailored to your specific needs. Are you ready? Let's get into it. I'm proud to introduce to you Dr Katrina Roundfield.
Stephanie Theriault:Dr Katrina Roundfield is a licensed clinical community psychologist who transitioned from academic medicine to entrepreneurship in behavioral health tech startups, driven by a passion for the transformative power of human change. With nearly two decades dedicated to creating and implementing interventions that foster healthier outcomes for families and communities, she embodies the belief that we all can make better choices for ourselves and for those around us. Dr Katrina Roundfield earned her MA and PhD in clinical community psychology at DePaul University, followed by her pre-doctoral residency at Yale University of Medicine. Afterwards, she completed an NIMH post-doctoral fellowship in clinical services research at the UCF School of Medicine. Dr Katrina Roundfield was the co-founder and chief clinical officer of APA Health, a teen mentoring and mental health skills company. Katrina was also on the founding team of Two Chairs, an adult psychotherapy startup. Katrina maintains an advisory role at Two Chairs today and under Katrina's executive leadership, the company scaled from zero to 1,000 therapy sessions a week. Afterwards, katrina was ready to make change.
Stephanie Theriault:In this episode, you will discover how a remarkable woman with firsthand experience of matrescence is revolutionizing immediate postpartum mental health care. What barriers do we encounter when seeking help for postpartum depression, anxiety and rage? Barriers that we face include access time empathy. Dr Katrina Roundfield and her collaborator have co-created an innovative app with Tara that bridges the gap, ensuring women and birthing individuals receive the support that they need to prevent mental health crises during the critical postpartum period. Imagine having help right in the palm of your hand exactly when you need it.
Stephanie Theriault:I'll share real examples from my own matrescence journey, including challenging mornings filled with seemingly endless tears while my husband's at work, my support team is miles away In those high tension moments plagued with sleep deprivation, lack of nutrition, loss of identity. The app with Tara provides virtual support. This journey of matrescence shines a light on how we can navigate a path that society often overlooks, guiding us through tough times and helping to prevent crises. I'm excited for you to learn more about Dr Katrina Roundfield and how her journey through matrescence is now empowering others welcome katrina hi stephanie.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:Thank you so much for having me thank you so much for being here.
Stephanie Theriault:I'm so excited to get into the conversation with you, learn more about you and your journey into motherhood and how that brought you to where you are today Amazing. I'm excited so one of the ways I really like to start the podcast is to have you share with us, with the listeners, about yourself before you became a mom.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:Sure, sure. So before I became a mom that was seven years ago, leading up before that I got my PhD in clinical and community psychology. I planned to be a research professor and so I started doing research on child and family and mental health. That was really my focus. I ended up going to Yale and then transitioned to be a professor at the University of California, san Francisco UCSF. A professor at the University of California, san Francisco UCSF, and there I was doing research focusing on the mental health of families and over some time just decided that I wanted to bring a lot of my research more into practice. And we're in Silicon Valley, san Francisco area I met a few people and started working on the side consulting at digital mental health companies as a consultant and then eventually decided to make the leap of faith and move into a full time role as a founding clinical leader at a company called Two Chairs.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:So I was there as our leading clinical person at the company and built that company for four years. Person at the company and built that company for four years. Company was doing great and during that period, actually backing up a whole four years, I was at the company. But in the very first year, in fact, when I was offered the job, I told the founder and CEO hey, you just offered me a job. I just want you to know I'm actually pregnant right now.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:And so I let him know that I was pregnant. I asked him is that going to be a problem? Because we shouldn't go forward if there's going to be some kind of issue with me being pregnant and at a startup. And he was true to his word and supported me every step of the way during my pregnancy and when I came back. But I will pause there, because that is the place where all of this starts in terms of my story of where I'm at now, what I'm working on now and why I'm so focused on postpartum care and the support of mothers for their mental health throughout their journey into motherhood.
Stephanie Theriault:So let's get into that Sure With your journey into the pregnancy, postpartum period, birth. Where did you find yourself in that experience that led you to where you are now?
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:Yeah. So my experience into motherhood was not what I expected and I think it's really important to note that. What I have found is that my story is not unique. It is the story of many women and birthing people that we read all these books, we take all the child prep classes, we try to know what to expect when we are expecting, and it turns out that most of us are not emotionally prepared for the transition into motherhood, and that was my experience.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:What happened was I had a pretty you know, not unremarkable pregnancy. It was. It was no problem it, you know. It was a really easy pregnancy.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:For the most part, I was very fortunate that I was able to deliver my child, actually without medication.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:That's how I wanted to deliver, really wanted to kind of own my birth story, and I was very fortunate that it all worked out that way for me. However, the moment that I left the hospital and had this beautiful little boy in my arms, my son Miles, I was pretty much gripped with panic and fear and overwhelm and anxiety and all the feelings, and I was not emotionally prepared for that. I thought that I was a pretty resilient person, I thought that I knew what I was getting myself into and unfortunately I had the experience of just feeling absolutely terrified for a good portion of my entire first year postpartum and I think you know, the deeper I've gone into exploring the mental health and wellness of women, I've realized that this is again not a unique story and it is also something that we are not really prepared for and our medical system sort of fails us in this period of time where the support is really lacking. So that was a little bit about my experience.
Stephanie Theriault:With your postpartum experience. How did you find what you needed to get you through that time?
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:Yeah. So for me, what ended up happening was I I'll share a statistic that, on average, women and birthing people get about 700 minutes of pregnancy, prenatal care, and that's everything from, you know, gestational diabetes tests to appointments to childbirth prep. All of this happens in pregnancy 700 minutes On average. After the baby arrives, moms get about 30 minutes of care, and that was my experience. As you can see, that's a pretty massive gap in care because the medical system sort of thinks, okay, well, the medical emergency which was you giving birth to a child is no longer present and so, since the baby is here, you should just be fine. And that is not the case. In fact, 80% of women experience extreme emotional distress in the entire first year postpartum, and that was my experience.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:However, I did go to a postpartum appointment. That was my 30 minutes. I was. Thankfully, my husband forced me to go. I wasn't actually going to go and actually, and actually, a lot of the research shows that many women miss that appointment because they're so focused on baby. They will not miss a pediatric appointment, but they're very likely to miss a postpartum aftercare visit. Thankfully, I did go, but I was I showed up to the appointment pretty frazzled.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:I don't even know if I brushed my hair that day. I had the baby with me. I was, you know, not sleeping, I was just worried and my doctor, being a fantastic doctor, was able to ask me a few questions, gave me a screener and screened me for anxiety and depression. Interestingly, I did not actually qualify for a disorder. So I had symptoms, but it wasn't high enough to, you know, say that I actually had postpartum depression or anxiety and as a result of that, my doctor didn't recommend further care. But what she did do was she listened and she was empathetic and she asked me to walk me. You know, walk her through my day. I told her well, I wake up and then I track everything on these trackers and I tracked the baby's poop and I tracked the baby's pee and I tracked the feeding and I tracked these things and I don't leave the house. And my doctor said hey, katrina, you really need to stop tracking everything. It's making you really obsessed and anxious and it's not good for you. You need to leave the house, you need to call a friend, you need to ask somebody to come and help you at the home, because my husband had to go back to work, unfortunately pretty quickly and so you know, my doctor had really practical preventative mental health tips for me. That were just things I could do, but I needed somebody to tell me to do them and so I did do those things and I did start to feel a bit better.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:I then sort of returned back to work after about three months. I took only three months and I think in some ways work was helpful to me because it helped me to take all of my obsessive thoughts that I was having that could have turned into postpartum OCD and I just obsessed about the company and I obsessed about my job. I think it was actually a healthy shift in how my brain was restructuring and rewiring itself. I'll talk a little bit about that, because a lot of what I focus on now at my company, tara, is focused on matrescence and how women's brains and bodies change and how that actually has massive impacts on mental health and wellness for women. But I did go back to work. I started to feel a bit better.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:I will say the whole first year was a bit of a blur and I feel like there were a lot of days that were unpleasant, anxiety filled and worrisome for me. So I think that very commonly. For other women as well, that whole first year is almost like a survival mode. I think that's a common experience, but I think we're not doing enough as a society to support moms in that experience and I was grateful and fortunate to have a doctor who just said hey, you don't need to worry this much, stop tracking all these things. Do something different or you're probably going to end up developing an actual disorder here and thankfully that intervention happened. But I think so many women and birthing people don't get that intervention and don't have any tools or skills or even just the basic knowledge to understand what's happening with them and their health and wellness no-transcript.
Stephanie Theriault:At Maternal Wealth, we aim to ensure that you have access to the best and the most appropriate care. That's why we created a Maternal Healthcare Provider Database. Maternal health providers can easily create profiles to promote their services and business, helping to increase access for those seeking their care. This is a one-of-a-kind database that offers a new and exciting way for women to search for and find maternal health providers near them and tailored to their specific needs. Profiles feature badges that highlight various services, such as TODAC-friendly practices, all-female practices, lgbtqai plus inclusivity, language options, access to vaginal breach services and more. Additionally, be sure to check out our Not your Average Birth course. In this course, I discuss the variations that exist in hospital practices based on policies, staffing and budgets, all of which can directly affect your birth experience and outcome. So you go back to work after your first child and then I know you have two.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:So before you got, pregnant with your second child. Where did with Tara come into play? Great questions? Tara came into play when, basically, I you know, really it's a fast forward of about six years gave birth to my child in 2018.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:My first kid went back to work at two chairs, stayed there for four years, gave birth to a second child while I was at two chairs as well, had a similar experience with my mental health not quite as debilitating and difficult as my first, but still very challenging and then transitioned out of that company, ended up going to another company focused on teen mental health. And during that entire period, I kept thinking about and talking to women health providers, reflecting on my own clinical practice working with postpartum moms and just continuing to think about what would have been better for me, what would have helped me during my postpartum experience and that whole first year after giving birth, and I just didn't have a good answer. You know, an obvious answer because I'm building mental health and therapy companies would have been to just provide better therapy to moms. But to be really honest with you, and maybe unexpectedly and a little contradictory given the fact that I am a licensed psychologist is that I didn't think that therapy was the answer for me and for me, I think that I had all the resources to go to therapy, but one my doctor said I wasn't clinically unwell, I just was emotionally struggling. You know, therapy is really for clinical issues, at least from my perspective. And then the other piece is that even if I had thought to go to therapy, when was I going to go? I didn't have a lot of time. I had a baby with me, you know, and then I had a second baby, just feel like, felt like I didn't really have the time to do that and I didn't really know if, frankly, if I even wanted to admit that I would have needed therapy. It just was, you know, so much survival mode and not focusing on myself was such a huge part of my survival was really just focusing on the baby. And so for years I thought about what could have helped me and what could have helped other moms, and I ended up doing a lot of research.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:I am a researcher. That's my kind of base level of kind of career is really understanding research and reading a lot of research and understanding the cutting edge science. And I came across research, shout out to a friend of mine, nicole Pensack, dr Nikki Pensack. She wrote a book called Rattled and I read that book and it was really eye opening about matrescence, about how the brain changes. I read that book in 2024. Had my child in 2018, thought about this issue for a long time, didn't really see a good answer, and then came across a book that a friend of mine sent me and she wrote it and I read it. It's about matrescence.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:And then I went deep, deep down the rabbit hole, reading all the research I possibly could on this topic and learned so much about, you know, an information gap. I'd never even heard of the word matrescence before. I'd literally never heard that word before. So you know, I'm a clinical psychologist, educated at Yale and UCSF, and I don't know this word. That feels like something that is pretty much a massive information gap.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:And, as a broader point, I think in maternal mental health and maternal health generally, there's just so much lack of knowledge, lack of information that's shared with women.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:Critical information that really could save lives literally could save lives is not shared with us, you know, because there's not always a focus on women's health, and this is yet another example of that that you know, because there's not always a focus on women's health and this isn't yet another example of that that you know, most women are not educated about the emotional fallout that's going to happen when they give birth to a child.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:It happens to probably everyone, actually, and you know, after reading that work and going deep down the rabbit hole, I said this is this is it. This is what I want to bring to the world. This is the company I want to build. I want to help women understand this information. I want to give them practical mental health, science-backed tools to support themselves that are really easy to use, and I want to give them a supportive community that is not a crazy Reddit rabbit hole or some strange Facebook mom group that ends up going off the rails. I want to give them a community that's moderated by mental health professionals and actually, can you know, give them a space to grow and support each other together in a moderated, safe space.
Stephanie Theriault:So you're a young mom you have two little kids and then you start your own company. Talk us through that.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:Yes, thank you. Yes, so by 2024, I had decided that I wanted to start this company, so got to it. My kids at the time must husband, and I think husbands are not always appreciated in the way that they should be. But I will say that my husband is absolutely supportive of me. He gives me the time and space and supports me in all the ways to actually get this done. I also have a lot of flexibility because I'm an entrepreneur, so that allows me to show up to read to the kids at Literacy Center or, you know, pick my kids up early from school or anything like that. So that's been. It's been a blessing, but yeah, it's. It's a little scary to start a company and do that with just from the ground up, but it, you know, the thing that really motivates me is that it's just so motivating to think about.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:My passion has always been to help children and families.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:My entire research, when I was younger and as a professor, was to support the wellness and better outcomes for children and families.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:And, as it turns out, you know, the biggest predictor of healthy child and family outcomes is whether mom is feeling good, whether mom is, you know, taking care of herself and is finding joy and is, you know, enjoying the quality of her motherhood experience. And I think, you know, the most important thing we can do for families is to support women and to support the mothers, and so that is what motivates me, it's my deep passion and honestly, I think it also makes me a better mom to build this company, and so, you know, that brings out the best in me to be able to make a difference for other moms. But also I'm learning a lot. I actually use the skills that we teach on our platform and it's helped me with things like mom guilt and mom rage and finding moments of joy. I literally use the skills that I teach, and so it makes me a better mom and I hope that it makes other other moms, the moms that they want to be and be able to show up for their families in the way they want to show up.
Stephanie Theriault:How did you come up with the name Tara for your company?
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:Great question. So I have a phenomenal co founder who is an engineer and he really is an entrepreneur who has the technical expertise of being a fantastic engineer. I worked with him at two chairs and then I worked with him at the company that I was at the teen mental health company and then, you know, when I transitioned from that teen mental health company, he was the first person to say, hey, katrina, we've been working together for the last like two companies and six or so years, like let's, let's build a company together. I was and I said I would love to do that, and so, um, we, we started working on Tara and at the time I actually had a name for it.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:That is cute, but it's just not clever enough, I think, and so I actually was going to call the company Miles Ahead, because my son's name is Miles and you know we want to create something that allows moms to be miles ahead. It's just not really like catchy in the, in the way that apps are supposed to be catchy or digital companies are supposed to be a little catchy. So, anyways, I shared that with my co founder, jesse, and he said this is nice, but like, let's keep thinking about that name.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:And actually my husband, I told my husband the name and he was like miles ahead. It's nice because it's like a tribute to miles, but then like, what about our other son? How will he feel when he realizes you created a company and didn't name it after him? And then so I, you know there was. It was already already riddled with a few flaws, but my co-founder explained our company to his wife and he explained hey, it's about matrescence, it's about how women's brains and bodies change and actually biology is really on their side because their brains are changing in a way to essentially learn their baby, show up best for their baby and, you know, provides a lot of opportunities for women to be the best mom that they can be. And his wife said oh, that's interesting.
Dr. Katrine Roundfield:It kind of makes me think about Tara the goddess, and she is a Buddhist goddess who is thought of as kind of a maternal figure. She's actually thought of as the mother of all Buddhas. And she basically was like maybe you should name your company Tara, tara, because it's kind of helping moms be their highest self, their most like enlightened maternal self. He said that name and I was like you know what I think? That's, that's the one like I think that actually might be better than miles ahead. So let's, let's go with that and I've I've really loved that vision that you moms can be their own goddess and they actually have everything that they need to be the best mom they can be. They just need a little bit of support during this really difficult transition.