How frustrating is it to spend every day pumping milk for your newborn, only to waste it during the transfer process? Or not having any room left in your freezer because you spent the afternoon #lifehacking a cardboard box to organize your supply bags? Not to mention the environmental impact: New nursing parents have to use a new bag every time they pump, sending a constant stream of single-use plastics to the landfill.
Well, it's time to stop crying over spilt milk with ReMana.
The ReMana breastfeeding system features a one-bottle container that can be used to pump, store and feed. Co-founder Lindsay McCurren came up with the product idea after her first son was born in 2013.
"The idea for the product came from my own pain point—hatred is a strong word, but disappointment or frustrations with the current solutions on the market," McCurren said. "I had my first son in 2013, went back to work at General Mills, and was pumping a ton. I basically had this extra process every day. Even after I had spent a lot of time pumping milk, I then had to work on managing it. I'd come home after putting the baby to bed, I'd be working on 'ok I'm going to package this' because you pump in to bottles, but you don't store it in those bottles. Then I had to package it into these bags, and I'd have to be pulling out bags to get ready for the next day because you can't feed from the bags, you have to pour it back into the bottle. I just remember it being this really frustrating process."
But how does the ReMana system streamline breastfeeding for new parents?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 83.2 percent of babies born in 2015 started with breastfeeding. ReMana will be offering a breastfeeding starter set for new parents. This set will include two differently sized bottles, pump adaptors, bottle caps and a nipple attachment. All this comes in a storage bin that fits inside a freezer.
In 2018, the breastfeeding accessories market was measured at $1.4 billion. But McCurren believes that even with a multitude of products on the market, there’s a need for the ReMana system. She says a system like this can help mothers from allieviating “mom guilt” to gaining their time back.
“Women want to be able to go back to work, they want to be able to ‘do it all,’ they want to be the best mom and they want to be the best worker,” McCurren said. “This product helps get them there, because it helps take a lot of the stress out of the rest of the process. It’s basically saving them time so they can be spending time doing something else.“
ReMana stands out from other pump-store-feed systems with its silicone bottles and eco-conscious ideals. According to McCurren, her competitors are still using expensive, single use plastics. Silicone bottles, she says, are safer: They contain no harmful chemicals, can be sterilized, are dishwasher safe and can be used multiple times.
When you’re a new parent, the world becomes smaller, and your sole focus becomes providing for your newborn. There’s no time to spend on determining which products are best for your baby and also environmentally friendly. ReMana wanted to create a product that both streamlined the process of breastfeeding and reduced the use of single-use plastics.
“If you think about a woman that’s going to be pumping, probably three to five times a day, and using a bag every time she’s doing that, then that’s three to five bags per woman per day that she’s throwing away,” McCurren said. “We really want to have a way for her to still make an eco-friendly choice without having it be her No. 1 priority, because we totally get that in that phase of life, it’s probably not going to be her No. 1 priority.”
ReMana is part of the Harvard i-Lab Summer Venture Program. McCurren is still conducting research but will begin building prototypes shortly.
