babies born this year globally
60% of babies born each year start their lives with a reduced immune system.
A significant number of mothers stop breastfeeding short of the science recommended minimum six months. In fact, more than 60% of women with intentions of breastfeeding for at least 3 months do not achieve their own intended goals and discontinue breastfeeding during the first few weeks postpartum.
The most common self-reported reasons by moms for early weaning are:
“ I don’t think I have enough milk”
“ I think my baby has trouble sucking or latching on”
Moms then turn to supplementing, most often with a bottle. When the baby is bottle fed, the mother is missing out on that stimulation that tells her body to produce more milk.
At Presque, we are developing a series of need-specific smart wearable lactation aids (“Presque Bra”) to mitigate unwanted early weaning. Presque reservoir feeding enables simultaneous dual direct breast and supplemental feeding of an infant while promoting mother’s lactation cycle and the safe implementation of skin-to-skin contact. Presque Smarts measures and provides insightful data, currently missing, to help mom build her self-confidence. Visit our FAQ page for more details.
Presque is easy-to-use, feminine, and dignified with no dangling tubes and no leaking. It fits under the mother’s clothing for use throughout the day, untethered. Presque will be offered to end-users directly and through hospitals and healthcare providers to maximize impact.
Breastfeeding is now well known to be a complex learned skill set dependent on symbiosis between both mother and baby through acquiring and reinforcing a series of behaviors sustaining infants’ nutrition and a mothers’ milk production. Presque reservoir feeding reinforces the breastfeeding skills of the baby-mother pair, unlike bottle feeding, while expanding the duration and ease of skin-to-skin nursing, supporting a longer breastfeeding period. The data will be useful in feedback mechanisms to encourage positive nursing behavior for the mothers and in developing broader initiatives to improve health outcomes.
Promoting breastfeeding and feeding babies human breast milk is a ‘one-shot’ intervention that can improve health not only for frail newborns but generations of mothers and babies and particularly for those most burdened by the circumstances of health inequity.
Presque products, designs, and system are covered by patents and patent applications.