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I'm an exclusively pumping parent right now. Naya isn't the first company to try to do something like this. Willow and Anabella are two other companies/devices

I'm an exclusively pumping parent right now. Naya isn't the first company to try to do something like this. Willow and Anabella are two other companies/devices trying to sell people on a better pump. Anabella's indiegogo campaign has made the rounds in all my pumping groups like 100 times on its promise of getting 100% milk out (it's a common idea that pumps right now can't get all available milk out like babies' mouths can). Willow is being sold on the idea that it fits in your bra without any tubes or hassle, which is a big deal for people wishing to discreetly pump in workplaces and such. But having used the top-of-the-line (Symphony and Ameda hospital grade pumps) all the way down to home-grade and manual pumps (Spectra S2, Freestyle, etc.) in the past 6 months - pretty sure it doesn't matter how effective the pump is or how comfortable it ends up being. The act of pumping itself is very difficult for many people and time consuming, and when you have employers, coworkers, and family/friends that don't respect your need to pump, you end up not pumping rather than doubling down with your $1k pump. Especially in the face of the fact that most parents in the US will qualify to get a free home-grade pump through insurance (including through WIC etc.) and that without insurance the average pump is only $100-200 plus supplies another $50-100 - along with an expectation to replace the pump every time you have a new child (the pump itself does wear out - I wear them out prematurely due to EPing :) )... I think these companies face a lot more problems than they're willing to acknowledge. VCs may be frustrating to work with here, but a lot of questions remain. I still wish these companies the best of luck though, as all technology has to start somewhere and then maybe becomes cheaper and more accessible over time :) Breast pumps decades ago look like torture devices in comparison to what's available now. edit to add: full disclosure, I haven't purchased or preordered any of the crop of new pumps. pretty much none of them support my (large) nipple size, and none of them seem to have worked closely with EPers as it is difficult to near impossible to find a pump that also promises that they'll have parts available for replacement. due to pumping all the damn time, I have to replace parts fairly frequently.

ryanmarsh 9y ago
It’s refreshing to have a voice like yours added to the conversation.
- silencio 9y ago
  Thank you! I got a bit tired of seeing mostly (presumably) male voices talking about their partner or their indirect experiences (including my own partner, a bit!) and I just wanted to throw in my direct 2c. Especially as someone that pumps like 2 hours a day plus another hour of pumping-related stuff (and that's significantly down from the early days...).
juulsim 9y ago
I had mixed reactions to this article. On the one hand, as a parent I've often thought about neglected business opportunities to meet certain fertility, pregnancy, and parenting needs, and this article resonated with that for me. But on the other hand, as you're mentioning, this area is a lot more complex than the article is letting on. My wife pumped exclusively until our child was about 1.5 years old, and one thing I noticed was that as she went on, she went from various hand pumps to various electric pumps, and then back to hand pumps for several months because the paraphernalia and power requirements involved were more troublesome than they were worth. I remember reading about this pump in early stages, and it sounded wonderful, and still sounds nice. But I'm not sure my wife would have actually been interested in it after a certain point in time, because it's still bulkier than a basic hand pump. At that big of price, they'd actually be losing out on two points, the extreme price and the bulk. Maybe going into pumping at the beginning, she would have purchased it if it had been available, but it's difficult for me to say. It's very expensive for what you'd be getting relative to the alternatives.
- silencio 9y ago
  Yes. We had fertility issues too (so hard to find apps that support that!) and as a mostly-SAHP here I feel out of place in SF and struggle to find resources beyond facebook groups. Resources like Winnie (https://winnie.com/ https://winnie.com/), in fact, which reduces a lot of my stress over taking a baby to a restaurant. I can definitely get on the rage-train about these things not getting funding while Juicero and Theranos throw away $$$$$$$. I think there's even more that I haven't delved into in my comment that might be a concern. As you point out, yup, experiences and preferences are all over the map. I'm sure these companies did their market research, and all three of the ones I mentioned definitely target pain points for pumpers (comfort, milk amount, and ease-of-use). I'm sure cost will become less of an issue once insurances start partially covering the pumps. Just, who knows if it will work out, it's complex for sure. And I say this as one of the few(er) parents that would not hesitate to drop $1k on a new pump if I could. Hell, there is even a video making the rounds in my EP groups of someone demonstrating hand-expressing 6 ounces (a lot!) of milk, for underproducers and for people stuck in hurricane-stricken-no-power areas to learn from. Too bad Facebook keeps removing the videos for explicit content. But the half hour of wringing out a boob just to feed your baby... many parents will definitely do whatever it takes! Your wife is a saint. I am so sick of looking at pumps (all four of my pumps...) and pump parts. I am quitting cold turkey on day 366 of pumping. No pump design for no amount of money will help me with that, hah.
saturdaysaint 9y ago
I have to say that you've only made the product sound more interesting: something that users spend countless hours with, which qualifies for a healthy subsidy, and which purports do something of great value (feeding one's children) sounds like an interesting business space to me! My wife is going back to work on Monday (and leaving our 6-week old boy with my mom), so this product sounds especially enticing. If the claims of producing more milk are true, that would be incredibly comforting - we really want to feed him all breastmilk for as long as possible, but she has fears about her supply keeping up with a growing/hungry boy. That seems to be the main selling point to me, so conversely I can see why these products would be uninteresting once you've determined that your supply is more than adequate.
- silencio 9y ago
  These are all marketing promises right now. We don't know how they work in practice among all the different people with different experiences and needs out there. Already Naya fails at one thing for me: nipple size. Like, really? Most pumps on the market come with multiple flange sizes because "average" doesn't mean one-size-fits-most. Naya will basically give me zero milk because it is too small. Otherwise I would buy this just to try it out, even halfway through with my pumping journey. Not sure about the bottles though - I don't even do daycare/nanny and I'm sitting on 10+ bottles I use daily... I'm not paying hundreds of dollars just for bottles that get thrown around and replaced and phased out by the end of a year, with zero mention of how to replace the nipples on the bottles (again, another replacement issue). These pumps also don't fix the other issues I point out and more. It doesn't matter what pump you have if your employer wants to fire you for taking two 30 minute "breaks" daily to go and pump in a closet. Supply tanks when you can't/don't pump, not usually because you're choosing between a $600 pump and a free pump. Or maybe you don't respond to the $600 pump that well in the first place. Some people will just never, not even with the gold "standard" of feeding-at-the-breast and doing everything they can, produce enough milk. Some people, with all the equipment in the world, will never be comfortable with pumping. I struggled with undersupply for the first 8 weeks, was a just-enougher for another month, and now I overproduce. If there's any unsolicited advice I can offer, it's that supply is a persistent thought that doesn't ever go away (outside of other issues it stabilizes like milk intake, usually, but only for as long as you're able to put enough effort into it), and that's what's so compelling about this kind of marketing. It sounds good to you, it sounds good to me! But that's why we should also be a little cautious. Support all the efforts (definitely tell awful VCs to fuck off, too), but make sure to get some domain experts (like people that actually have had to pump!) on board and continue solving pain points and refining the products. And for parents and yourself wondering if this might solve their problem - it may but it may not, and there's nothing wrong with formula supplementation or all formula if that's what it ends up coming down to. Fed is best. Congrats on the little one and I hope your wife gets the support she needs to pump if that's what she wants to do :) I use a Symphony because it's free with my insurance (Kaiser) but my backup/travel pump is currently the Spectra S2 and it's a big favorite in EP communities for comfort and milk production, if she (like many) is unsatisfied with the non-Symphony Medela pumps that are so popular. Also: milk intake does level out around 4-6 weeks or so, so it's not like your wife has to pump an ever increasing number! At peak babies consume an average of 28-32oz/day until around 6 months when you start solids, and then milk slowly decreases once solids take over more and more. I know it's not very reassuring until you experience it for yourself (I've been there too), but I've got a very big 99th percentile weight/length baby that only has ~28oz/day or so.

ryanmarsh 9y ago

It’s refreshing to have a voice like yours added to the conversation.

silencio 9y ago
Thank you! I got a bit tired of seeing mostly (presumably) male voices talking about their partner or their indirect experiences (including my own partner, a bit!) and I just wanted to throw in my direct 2c. Especially as someone that pumps like 2 hours a day plus another hour of pumping-related stuff (and that's significantly down from the early days...).

juulsim 9y ago

I had mixed reactions to this article. On the one hand, as a parent I've often thought about neglected business opportunities to meet certain fertility, pregnancy, and parenting needs, and this article resonated with that for me. But on the other hand, as you're mentioning, this area is a lot more complex than the article is letting on. My wife pumped exclusively until our child was about 1.5 years old, and one thing I noticed was that as she went on, she went from various hand pumps to various electric pumps, and then back to hand pumps for several months because the paraphernalia and power requirements involved were more troublesome than they were worth. I remember reading about this pump in early stages, and it sounded wonderful, and still sounds nice. But I'm not sure my wife would have actually been interested in it after a certain point in time, because it's still bulkier than a basic hand pump. At that big of price, they'd actually be losing out on two points, the extreme price and the bulk. Maybe going into pumping at the beginning, she would have purchased it if it had been available, but it's difficult for me to say. It's very expensive for what you'd be getting relative to the alternatives.

silencio 9y ago
Yes. We had fertility issues too (so hard to find apps that support that!) and as a mostly-SAHP here I feel out of place in SF and struggle to find resources beyond facebook groups. Resources like Winnie (https://winnie.com/ https://winnie.com/), in fact, which reduces a lot of my stress over taking a baby to a restaurant. I can definitely get on the rage-train about these things not getting funding while Juicero and Theranos throw away $$$$$$$. I think there's even more that I haven't delved into in my comment that might be a concern. As you point out, yup, experiences and preferences are all over the map. I'm sure these companies did their market research, and all three of the ones I mentioned definitely target pain points for pumpers (comfort, milk amount, and ease-of-use). I'm sure cost will become less of an issue once insurances start partially covering the pumps. Just, who knows if it will work out, it's complex for sure. And I say this as one of the few(er) parents that would not hesitate to drop $1k on a new pump if I could. Hell, there is even a video making the rounds in my EP groups of someone demonstrating hand-expressing 6 ounces (a lot!) of milk, for underproducers and for people stuck in hurricane-stricken-no-power areas to learn from. Too bad Facebook keeps removing the videos for explicit content. But the half hour of wringing out a boob just to feed your baby... many parents will definitely do whatever it takes! Your wife is a saint. I am so sick of looking at pumps (all four of my pumps...) and pump parts. I am quitting cold turkey on day 366 of pumping. No pump design for no amount of money will help me with that, hah.

saturdaysaint 9y ago

I have to say that you've only made the product sound more interesting: something that users spend countless hours with, which qualifies for a healthy subsidy, and which purports do something of great value (feeding one's children) sounds like an interesting business space to me! My wife is going back to work on Monday (and leaving our 6-week old boy with my mom), so this product sounds especially enticing. If the claims of producing more milk are true, that would be incredibly comforting - we really want to feed him all breastmilk for as long as possible, but she has fears about her supply keeping up with a growing/hungry boy. That seems to be the main selling point to me, so conversely I can see why these products would be uninteresting once you've determined that your supply is more than adequate.

silencio 9y ago
These are all marketing promises right now. We don't know how they work in practice among all the different people with different experiences and needs out there. Already Naya fails at one thing for me: nipple size. Like, really? Most pumps on the market come with multiple flange sizes because "average" doesn't mean one-size-fits-most. Naya will basically give me zero milk because it is too small. Otherwise I would buy this just to try it out, even halfway through with my pumping journey. Not sure about the bottles though - I don't even do daycare/nanny and I'm sitting on 10+ bottles I use daily... I'm not paying hundreds of dollars just for bottles that get thrown around and replaced and phased out by the end of a year, with zero mention of how to replace the nipples on the bottles (again, another replacement issue). These pumps also don't fix the other issues I point out and more. It doesn't matter what pump you have if your employer wants to fire you for taking two 30 minute "breaks" daily to go and pump in a closet. Supply tanks when you can't/don't pump, not usually because you're choosing between a $600 pump and a free pump. Or maybe you don't respond to the $600 pump that well in the first place. Some people will just never, not even with the gold "standard" of feeding-at-the-breast and doing everything they can, produce enough milk. Some people, with all the equipment in the world, will never be comfortable with pumping. I struggled with undersupply for the first 8 weeks, was a just-enougher for another month, and now I overproduce. If there's any unsolicited advice I can offer, it's that supply is a persistent thought that doesn't ever go away (outside of other issues it stabilizes like milk intake, usually, but only for as long as you're able to put enough effort into it), and that's what's so compelling about this kind of marketing. It sounds good to you, it sounds good to me! But that's why we should also be a little cautious. Support all the efforts (definitely tell awful VCs to fuck off, too), but make sure to get some domain experts (like people that actually have had to pump!) on board and continue solving pain points and refining the products. And for parents and yourself wondering if this might solve their problem - it may but it may not, and there's nothing wrong with formula supplementation or all formula if that's what it ends up coming down to. Fed is best. Congrats on the little one and I hope your wife gets the support she needs to pump if that's what she wants to do :) I use a Symphony because it's free with my insurance (Kaiser) but my backup/travel pump is currently the Spectra S2 and it's a big favorite in EP communities for comfort and milk production, if she (like many) is unsatisfied with the non-Symphony Medela pumps that are so popular. Also: milk intake does level out around 4-6 weeks or so, so it's not like your wife has to pump an ever increasing number! At peak babies consume an average of 28-32oz/day until around 6 months when you start solids, and then milk slowly decreases once solids take over more and more. I know it's not very reassuring until you experience it for yourself (I've been there too), but I've got a very big 99th percentile weight/length baby that only has ~28oz/day or so.