On Sunday afternoon 10 pestered but happy squad of hackers shared their innovation in Shark Tank - style five - minute presentations . The goal ? To reinvent a clunky necessity of mod parenting : the titty ticker .
The name of the event , Make the Breast Pump Not Suck , may seem ironic — breast pumps literally suck , of course ; suction is the method by which today ’s fashion model work . But that ’s one of the problems that a few of the assembled cyber-terrorist take issue with . And there are many more .
The motor are loud , and the small parts are as hard to keep track of as they are to clean . Even the hands - free fashion model do n’t grant you to do much of anything else while you pump . They almost universally search like airhorns that you hold up to your chest , and for no dandy cause ; this design can actually make it harder for moms to produce the quantity and quality of Milk River they involve .
While those may sound like number that can be addressed exclusively with software or computer hardware , bosom ticker concerns are also complicated by larger societal issues . When kicking off the effect , Catherine D’Ignazio , one of the event ’s organizers , encouraged the team to think crowing .
“ Rethink the spaces where the great unwashed pump , and how they feel when they are pumping , and who supports them and their pumping and breastfeeding , ” she order . “ Hack more of the systemic problem that new class face , like the lack of paid maternity leave and former puerility education . ” A spontaneous outburst of applause followed .
Lactation inspiration
The hackathon lead off with talks from expert in relevant flying field who were also judging the result . Topics included lactation and obstruction breastfeed families face , maternal wellness within the startup landscape , and the role of innovation in global wellness initiatives . Then the150 participants leapt into action .
concretion - based lactation ( instead of suction - based suckling ) was a finish of many solutions , like this bra from Helping Hands
There were 18 pitches in all . Compression - establish pumping ( as contradict to suck - base ) was a major theme , as was data - gather and baby - mimicking . Teams had until Sunday good afternoon to plan , get help from the experts on - site , and form on their solutions .
Latching on to an idea
Throughout the days , the process include plenty of coos and cries from the babe in attendance , another name characteristic of this hackathon that attender seemed to enjoy and eviscerate inspiration from . One squad member , Robyn Churchill , a demonstrate nurse , midwife and female parent of two , used surveys to call for moms what they did n’t like about pump — collecting details fuck as “ painfulness point . ”
From this feedback a vindicated chance rise : redesigning the pump to make it more portable and useable . “ Our approaching did n’t do much to deepen the breast heart technology , but what we did was make the manipulation of it much more hands - free , ” she says .
There was a rub , however . “ When we removed the bottle from the breast , you could n’t see how full the feeding bottle was , ” says Churchill . “ So we demand something up there that would allow you to know how much you have pumped . ” The team actualise that by turning the Milk River bring forth into electronic information , it could not only be monitored but tracked over sentence by the mother . She could get feedback about how much Milk River she was producing , as well as the quality , by measure rich content .
The squad members all pulled out their phones to show their gamified wellness apps and trackers . But how to actually measure and track the breast Milk River itself ? “ One of the guys on our squad conducted test on water quality , so we see that we could use the same optic sensing element , ” state Churchill .
A demonstration of how an optic filling sensor might help mammy track their Milk River production by the makers of the Mighty Mom Utility Belt .
The upshot is a kind of quantified milk story that the wet-nurse mom can use to pump more efficiently but also share her selective information with a extensive biotic community , creating the first crowdsourced breast Milk River data . “ Imagine being able to have factual data for actual volume produce , ” says Churchill . “ investigator could really use it . ”
How the hacks stacked up
Each intersection , many with partial or complete epitome , was unequalled and address one or more of the pain compass point user had share . One was as round-eyed as come apart the rim from the bottle , a solution that takes aside from the “ Milk River moo-cow ” belief mammy report .
Another mind undertake how to on keeping raceway of Milk River ’s production and temperature after it ’s been pump to keep from wasting what mothers work firmly to produce . And as organizers hoped , some accost issues like the pumping surround and education . After nearly an time of day of deliberateness , the judges emerge to name the winners .
Special recognition : Compress - Expressfor their system devoted to change the landscape of pumping with a discreet all - in - one compressing system .
owing user - focused excogitation : Second Naturefor a ticker designed to be as close to nursing as possible by mimicking the clue a baby pass on the breast .
$ 1,000 third prize : Pump . IOfor an capable platform for gathering breast feeding data and providing encouragement like a FitBit .
Second prize and $ 2,000 : help Hands , the bandeau that mimics script compressionfor greater yield and can be used for both pumping or nursing .
The winning construct , the Mighty Mom Utility Belt .
The overall winner was Churchill ’s group Team Batman with theMighty Mom Utility Belt , a superhero - way bash allowed for invisible pumping with a quieter motor that ’s separate from the user interface . It used the optic sensing tool to post data to a speech sound . The group also eliminated ticker component and preface Modern easier - to - clean thermionic tube .
“ None of us have the answer , but if all of these can coalesce into a few different products , that could really help women , ” says Churchill . On top of all that , the Mighty Mom Utility Belt offers a mother a feel that pumping does n’t have to make her like less of a man — or else , it make her superhuman .
photo by Che - Wei Wang , except where noted
BreastsHealthparentingWomen ’s wellness
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