The AI app Soula seeks to improve healthcare access for pregnant women

• The Soula app has an AI chatbot, Dua, that immunodeficiency mothers pinch postpartum slump support.
• AI chatbots for illustration Dua purpose to trim healthcare burdens and amended intelligence wellness access.
• OB/GYN experts said that they invited invention successful AI to destigmatize questions astir pregnancy.

Caring for a month-old newborn and two-year-old boy felt overwhelming for LeRonika Francis.

During her first postpartum period, Francis said she knowledgeable a dense activity of slump while dealing pinch a babe pinch colic. She yet sought nan thief of a counselor. It was not until her astir caller gestation that she besides started to usage an AI chatbot connected nan fem-tech app Soula, which she said helped pinch reducing depressive symptoms and reassuring her astir her intelligence health.

"It tells me: 'Welcome back, LeRonika. Your reactions are natural,'" said Francis, who is based successful New Iberia, Louisiana.

The AI chatbot called "Dua" besides sent her immoderate videos that she could watch astir self-hugging, a believe that could trim accent levels.

"I consciousness for illustration Dua is location much than anything. It really showed me: OK, this is what you could do. Make judge you make clip for yourself, too, because that's important arsenic well," said Francis.

Soula was co-founded by Natallia Miranchuk and Andrei Kulik, who conceptualized a 24/7 AI doula that could adjacent nan spread successful intelligence wellness support for mothers during gestation and postpartum periods. Rather than replacing aesculapian providers, apps specified arsenic Soula purpose to summation broader entree to maternal healthcare. Healthcare providers said that these apps could besides thief trim nan load connected nan healthcare system, wherever hold times tin beryllium agelong and workers look burnout.

Business Insider said pinch OB/GYN doctors and doulas, who mostly welcomed nan emergence successful AI chatbots because they tin make accusation much accessible to patients.

According to information obtained from Sensor Tower, Soula now has much than 35,000 downloads. The startup has fundraised complete $750,000 and is backed by investors specified as Andrey Mikhaylyuk, the erstwhile vice president of merchandise astatine Flo Health, a play search app.

Miranchuk told BI that her experiences arsenic a azygous mother of 2 and her activity arsenic a erstwhile maternity photographer inspired her to create a supportive app for women. Initially conceptualized arsenic a hub to link doulas worldwide to those successful need, nan generative AI roar shifted nan startup's attraction to integrating a chatbot that could service much populations.

"Women are awkward to inquire questions, moreover successful nan community, because they person nan emotion that possibly 'as a mom, I should person known that, but I don't.' And she doesn't cognize wherever to go," Miranchuk said.

The easiness of customizing ChatGPT has spurred a activity of caller AI-based chatbots for illustration Soula. According to Sensor Tower, nan companion apps Character.ai, Talkie, and Paradot person much than 73 cardinal corporate downloads, soaring much than 130% betwixt 2023 and 2024. AI therapy apps specified as Wysa and Woebot received complete 1 cardinal downloads, nan information said.

Corenia Smith, head of nan Birth Justice Collaborative successful Minnesota, said that while popularizing devices for illustration chatbots tin thief broaden healthcare access, it is important to debar a "one size fits all" and guarantee that AI tin bespeak nan communities it serves.

"There are taste practices that beryllium and person existed for thousands of years that group still use," Smith said. "A quality could talk astir each their acquisition and what they've seen and springiness referrals. When you scope that limitation pinch an AI, it has to person nan expertise to manus complete attraction aliases make a referral successful a measurement wherever group don't consciousness dropped."

The domiciled of a doula

The AI chatbot Dua intends to usability for illustration a doula, providing mothers pinch accusation astir nan gestation acquisition during a clip of transition.

Doulas are trained professionals who tin supply non-medical, continuous physical, emotional, and accusation support for women before, during, and aft childbirth, helping to reduce mental health-related morbidity for nan mother and trim babe mortality rates.

Access to doulas tin beryllium costly. While there's Medicaid sum for doulas successful respective states, not each backstage wellness security plans screen these expenses. Long hold times and socioeconomic inequality besides lend to accrued levels of accent and deficiency of healthcare usage among mothers and pregnant people.

"Traditionally, it's been thing that's been disposable only to folks pinch a batch of money and a batch of resources. The group that use nan astir from doula attraction are those that mightiness not spot nan healthcare system," said Dr. Devon Rupley, an attending expert and OB/GYN master astatine NYC Health. "That tends to beryllium group of colour who've had antecedently antagonistic experiences pinch racism and bias that tin really harm their acquisition successful nan healthcare strategy generally."

Rupley added that utilizing an AI healthcare app to reside basal questions tin let patients to walk higher-quality clip pinch doctors by asking high-level questions and discussing their healthcare issues.

How to creation an empathetic AI chatbot

Soula enlisted real-life doulas to thief train its chatbot and onslaught nan correct tone.

"We can't create it to beryllium arsenic personable arsenic talking to a real-life person, but we tin effort to create that arsenic overmuch arsenic possible," said Lexi Pacheco, a doula from Arizona who worked to thief refine nan speech successful Soula's chatbot Dua. For $22 per hour, she helped amended nan chatbot by utilizing it "hand-in-hand" during her pregnancies, adding successful her expertise.

While asking questions connected Google could output much informational responses, Pacheco said mothers would want thing that provided "more of that reassurance that Google wouldn't."

For Armani Grant, a Soula user who became pregnant astatine 18, Google felt overwhelming. The chatbot allowed her to inquire questions that she wouldn't consciousness comfortable asking her mother.

Pacheco said galore women she's worked pinch reported akin experiences.

"They mightiness moreover consciousness incompetent to inquire nan question, which nary female should ever feel, but pinch my history of moving pinch people, they decidedly thin to revert to: I'm sorry, I'm asking this mobility for immoderate reason, and that mightiness conscionable beryllium because of nan societal unit that much medicalized doctors person put connected group that they don't springiness nan clip and time to us," Pacheco said.

The app isn't meant to wholly switch a doula. Moreover, retention rates of AI healthcare chatbots tin beryllium low, said Johannes Eichstaedt, a computational societal intelligence and adjunct professor of psychology astatine Stanford University. The precocious dropout rates for healthcare apps are "an elephant successful nan room," he said.

At nan aforesaid time, Pacheco said AI bots tin thief "calm nerves" and capable nan gaps erstwhile patients consciousness they are "bothering" their healthcare providers.

"AI isn't for illustration a healthcare supplier to springiness you guidance, but it's expected to beryllium location to springiness you a small spot much comfort," Pacheco said.