Hi friend,

It’s 3am in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

It’s been a busy night, so Dr. Jessica Gaulton (Jess) takes advantage of a quiet moment to type up some patient notes. On her desk there are things you might expect from a neonatologist fellow working eighty hour weeks: a computer, a keyboard with faded letters, discarded snack wrappers, but they’re competing for space with pumping equipment and baby bottles. As usual, Jess is multi-tasking. While she types, she’s also pumping milk for her six-week old newborn, who’s at home with her eighteen month old son. 

Then her pager beeps. A baby is coding. Jess jumps up, throws off her pump and runs. She finds the baby, performs CPR and saves the baby’s life. She leaves and walks back towards the call room to finish her notes. As she opens the door she notices her pumping equipment on the floor. Then she notices that it’s sitting in a pool of milk. Milk that has spilled from all the bottles she just pumped for her newborn. 

She breaks down.  

This was the start of a new chapter in Jess’ journey with postpartum depression. 

But it was also the start of her journey to build FamilyWell, a company improving women’s mental health by embedding care directly into OB/GYN practices. They’ve built a care model that helps thousands of Moms across five states and last year, the business raised an $8M Series A.

Today, Jess is the CEO of the business. She is also a practicing neonatologist at Harvard, an institution from which she also holds a Masters in Public Health.

In this Hemingway Guide, we tell Jess’ story and share the business and life lessons that she’s learned along the way.