As a new mother I suffered greatly when breast and bottle-feeding my son. He put on weight fast, he had a big appetite, and I - like most new mothers - felt like I was constantly feeding in those first few months. I enjoyed meeting friends and going out with our babies, but I would suffer for it. My elbow would ache, my shoulder would get stiff, my neck would get tight, and my fingers often felt locked in one position, gripping on to the weight of my son and balancing on whatever I could find to give me support (finger tips on the table, rolled up coat, dirty pub cushion, hard wooden arm of a coffee shop chair). I later developed painful tennis elbow.
One winter’s day in St Albans, I was having a mat leave lunch with my sister in a restaurant. I was holding my 4-month-old son on an armless chair, trying to eat with one hand (as we often do in those early days) whilst my right arm was straining to take the weight of his body and head. I passed him to my sister and then watched her knuckles turn white as she used the edge of the table to grip and take the weight of him. In this moment I thought of BabyBean®.
Why, I asked myself (and later many others), do we have so many nursing pillows/cushions for use in the home but nothing designed and adapted to take out of the home? As I opened my eyes to this reality I began to notice how many mothers would either strain and suffer, roll up a coat, use their bag, a blanket, prop their knee up awkwardly twisting their hips, or use space under their pram by bringing out a sofa cushion. Nine months of pregnancy, a long painful birth, and now I was facing elbow, shoulder, neck, and knee problems too? This just didn’t seem fair or right. I set about cutting up materials, even one of my children’s mattresses once (much to the annoyance of my husband!) and made myself what would end up being my very first mobile BabyBean® prototype.
Over ten years later, it’s been an amazing, and very difficult, journey at times navigating life & family and creating a product from a scratchy idea to a finished product.
We hope you love BabyBean® as much as we do!
