Bumpin’ and the Modern Birth Industry | Leslie Schrock

Today, we talk with Leslie Schrock (leslieschrock.com), entrepreneur, investor, and author of Bumpin’: The Modern Guide to Pregnancy (bumpin.com), which she wrote in real time when she was pregnant, and is a real and honest look at the birth process from the decision to conceive through birth and postpartum. We talk about her efforts growing Rock Health (https://rockhealth.com), a startup accelerator of companies that improve the quality, safety, and accessibility of our healthcare system. She gives examples of companies that provide telehealth care specifically for women, such as Maven (https://www.mavenclinic.com) and Origin (https://www.theoriginway.com). We talk about the importance of investing in women’s health, as well as the history behind the underrepresentation of women in clinical trials. Leslie talks about how the defects and tragedy caused by thalidomide essentially banned women from clinical trials in the U.S. for a long time, and how women are still suffering the effects from that. We talk about the growth of women’s health, and we predict it will only continue to grow into the future. We discuss the importance of education in health and anatomy, and how especially investing in women’s health education can influence families and society at large to take better care of their bodies. Leslie talks more about her birth experience, including her preparation and recovery. We focus on the importance of realizing that you can’t control birth, and how you shouldn’t let a negative birth experience define yourself as a parent. Leslie then talks about the success of her book, Bumpin’, as well as her plans for a future book that takes a more comprehensive look at women’s health. We discuss the importance of both women and men committing to learning about fertility. 

• 0:52 Writing Bumpin’ and Growing Rock Health; Telehealth 
• 9:16 Investing in Women’s Health and Health Education 
• 30:16 Lessons Leslie Learned From Her Birth Experience
• 38:38 Changing the Conversation About Women’s Health and Fertility

"It took 3 pregnancies and 16 months to get my son here…I had a miscarriage around 6 weeks. The second pregnancy we found out wasn’t viable due to a chromosomal abnormality, and even though the pregnancy was going to end on its own in a matter of weeks, we still had to technically terminate it.” 1:37