Novel warming and massaging bra for improved breast milk expression

Momease Solutions, Inc., Plymouth MN

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Breast milk is an unmatched bioactive source of nutritional, immunological, and neurodevelopmental benefits for infants that evolves as an infant grows to meet their unique health and nutritional needs. As such, breast milk is considered the clinical gold standard for infant feeding, and both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend exclusive breastfeeding through 6 months of age. Exclusive breastfeeding is defined as giving no other food or drink than breast milk, which can be achieved by nursing infants at the breast, bottle feeding breast milk, or a combination of the two. At some point, 85% of breastfeeding mothers will use a breast pump (equating to 2.56 million new mothers every year), and a high proportion will continue regular use. A major limitation of the electric breast pump is that it singularly uses suction power to remove milk from a breast. This can result in only removing milk closest to the nipple. An infant, on the other hand, uses a combination of suction, the warmth of their mouths, and the movement of their jaw and hands against the breast to efficiently and completely remove milk from the breast. Therefore, breast pumps are missing two of the three key elements necessary for effective breast milk extraction. Momease Solutions released a customer discovery survey on social media and received over 1200 individual responses in 24 hours. A staggering 97% of responders reported challenges while using a breast pump, with top challenges including long, uncomfortable, and low-yield pumping sessions. Individually, manually warming or massaging the breasts while pumping has been shown to increase milk output by 42% and 48%, respectively. To date, no accessory exists that introduces warmth and positive pressure massage to the breast pump experience in a hands-free manner. To address this unmet need, Momease will seek proof-of-concept data for their warming and massaging bra through the following Phase I Aims—Aim 1. Design and develop novel hands-free warming and massaging bra, Aim 2: Test the bra for warming and massaging functionality, and Aim 3: Perform usability study to evaluate intuitive operability and acceptance. Ultimately, this is the first- step toward commercializing a technology that could make a substantial health and economic impact on the millions of mothers and infants who seek to breastfeed through 6 months of age and beyond.