LacTeck: Bring Technology To Lactation
Meeting your baby for the first time melts your heart. That's why you decided to breastfeed - you want the best for your precious little one! But breastfeeding isn't always easy. The journey sometimes involves pain, sweat, stress, tears and even break-downs. It makes you wonder - why is this so hard?! Am I not a good mom if I couldn't provide enough food for my baby? The answer is absolutely not. It's not you, it's the century old human lactation technology that hadn't evolved with our life/work style.
We understand your struggles because we've been there ourselves. Our team of MIT moms are creating awesome lactation technologies to make it easier for awesome moms like you. Our products have been well-received in over 15 countries including United States, Canada, UK, Belgium, Australia, Netherlands, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. And the best thing? We are always improving and innovating so that you could have the best experience!
OUR STORIES
Juan Chen
Founder, LacTeck
Inventor, BabyMotion Flange and SleepyMommy Adapter
When I had my daughter Helen in 2015, I had to exclusively pump because of unbearable latching pain. However, for traveling and working mothers, pumping is a real challenge!
Let me tell you what happened once after an 18-hour international flight without pumping. My breasts were so engorged and painful that the only thing I wanted to do was to run off the plane, jump into the first cab I saw, get to the hotel and finally pump. But oh NO, the moment I plugged the pump in, it short-circuited and the whole room went completely dark. I freaked out and called the front desk at 1am to send a technician. For thirty minutes, I sat in the dark crying, my breasts felt like they were going to explode. After the technician restored the power, I had to hand express each breast for two excruciating hours. From that very moment, I decided that I needed to create lactation technologies so that millions of future mothers, including Helen, would never experience what I went through.
Katherine Hornbostel
Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Inventor, Pump2Baby Bottle
In 2013, when I had my twin sons (Nick & Ben), I chose to exclusively pump due to latching problems. Pumping was a full-time job. I would pump, store the milk, bottle feed my sons, clean the bottles, and repeat this whole process every 2-3 hours from morning to night.
The memories of hurrying to pump while Nick & Ben screamed at the top of their lungs in hunger across the room was so traumatic that I said to myself, “there must be a better way to feed my babies while pumping!” As a PhD mechanical engineering student at MIT, I began brainstorming engineering solutions to this problem, which resulted in a prototype for the Pump2Baby Bottle.
Juan, another MIT mom who experienced similar challenges, was excited about the prototype and decided to create this amazing product. We believe the Pump2Baby Bottle will alleviate the stress of pumping and save mothers 180 hours (yes, as nerds, we calculated it!) to bond with their babies, or actually sleep.