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had heard about the event and wanted to chime in. Throughout the event, mothers were encouraged to meet the hackers and provide feedback on their projects, or even try them out. “We want those voices to be heard,” says D’Ignazio. The top prize went to the Mighty Mothers, who designed a hands-free utility belt with tubes leading to a pump worn under the bra that is designed to make it easier to start pumping. The belt comes with slots for milk bottles and data sensors to monitor information about –That’s lunch sorted – the milk, such as fat content. In addition, the tubes that funnel the milk from pump to bottle can be “unzipped” to make them easier to clean. For their idea, the team received $3000 and a trip for two to Can we reinvent the breast pump? Aviva Rutkin attends Silicon Valley to pitch their idea to investors. a hackathon that attempted to do just that – in only a day Second place went to a group that filled the pump with warming JENNY BOURBEAU is frustrated. it so dads can share in feeding. But “Why isn’t the breast pump a little silicone beads and added massaging For the last 10 months, the mothers complain that pumps are bit smarter too?” technology inspired by sex toys to Massachusetts mother has been noisy, uncomfortable, difficult to On the Saturday morning, aid milk flow. Other team projects expressing breast milk for her clean and unwieldy to carry. They attendees each got a minute to included a smartphone app that young son. Like many mothers, can take a long time to assemble pitch their ideas, then scrambled tracked data about each pumping she needed to use a pump but and often come with fiddly parts into teams and spent the next session; a blanket-like accessory found the experience impersonal that are easily lost. Many women 26 hours furiously working on a that obscured the pump from and difficult. feel embarrassed using the pumps prototype. Many, like Bourbeau, sight and dulled its noise; public “I spent a lot of time with the away from home. brought their babies along for “pods” where mothers could go to pump and the process, thinking Catherine D’Ignazio, a research the weekend. In the back of the comfortably pump; and a virtual about how much it sucks and how affiliate at MIT and mother of room, there was a large play area reality game for Oculus Rift to it could be better and wondering three who co-organised the for kids and a private nook for teach new mums about lactation. why it isn’t yet,” she says. event, wondered if there might mothers to try out the ideas. One “I was up almost all night Last weekend, Bourbeau, her be a way to push the technology wall was lined with printouts of remembering everyone’s projects son, and more than 150 engineers, forward. “These days, we have hundreds of Facebook comments, and coming up with more ideas,” designers, healthcare specialists smart everything,” she says. suggestions from parents who says Bourbeau. A $500 award and parents gathered at the MIT for user-focused design went Media Lab for a hackathon called to Second Nature. Their pump Make the Breast Pump Not Suck. mimicked biology: a flange Their goal: to spend two days shaped like a baby’s mouth, radically reimagining the a retractable moving tongue, device that innovation forgot. and a pneumatic pump made The design has changed little with balloons all helped milk flow. since portable pumps became At the helm of Second Nature widely available more than 20 years was local mother Kristy Johnson. ago. Many mothers need to use She spent several days before the one when they go back to work so event looking up breastfeeding their milk does not stop, while diagrams and sketching out others have to express milk ideas. “This technology seems because they can’t breastfeed so cemented in the past. There’s aSmarter pumps in the making– got to be a better way to do it.” n normally. Others choose to do Aviva Rutkin
Express delivery
27 September 2014 | NewScientist | 19
Technology
For more technology stories, visit newscientist.com/technology
had heard about the event and wanted to chime in. Throughout the event, mothers were encouraged to meet the hackers and provide feedback on their projects, or even try them out. “We want those voices to be heard,” says D’Ignazio. The top prize went to the Mighty Mothers, who designed a hands-free utility belt with tubes leading to a pump worn under the bra that is designed to make it easier to start pumping. The belt comes with slots for milk bottles and data sensors to monitor information about –That’s lunch sorted – the milk, such as fat content. In addition, the tubes that funnel the milk from pump to bottle can be “unzipped” to make them easier to clean. For their idea, the team received $3000 and a trip for two to Can we reinvent the breast pump? Aviva Rutkin attends Silicon Valley to pitch their idea to investors. a hackathon that attempted to do just that – in only a day Second place went to a group that filled the pump with warming JENNY BOURBEAU is frustrated. it so dads can share in feeding. But “Why isn’t the breast pump a little silicone beads and added massaging For the last 10 months, the mothers complain that pumps are bit smarter too?” technology inspired by sex toys to Massachusetts mother has been noisy, uncomfortable, difficult to On the Saturday morning, aid milk flow. Other team projects expressing breast milk for her clean and unwieldy to carry. They attendees each got a minute to included a smartphone app that young son. Like many mothers, can take a long time to assemble pitch their ideas, then scrambled tracked data about each pumping she needed to use a pump but and often come with fiddly parts into teams and spent the next session; a blanket-like accessory found the experience impersonal that are easily lost. Many women 26 hours furiously working on a that obscured the pump from and difficult. feel embarrassed using the pumps prototype. Many, like Bourbeau, sight and dulled its noise; public “I spent a lot of time with the away from home. brought their babies along for “pods” where mothers could go to pump and the process, thinking Catherine D’Ignazio, a research the weekend. In the back of the comfortably pump; and a virtual about how much it sucks and how affiliate at MIT and mother of room, there was a large play area reality game for Oculus Rift to it could be better and wondering three who co-organised the for kids and a private nook for teach new mums about lactation. why it isn’t yet,” she says. event, wondered if there might mothers to try out the ideas. One “I was up almost all night Last weekend, Bourbeau, her be a way to push the technology wall was lined with printouts of remembering everyone’s projects son, and more than 150 engineers, forward. “These days, we have hundreds of Facebook comments, and coming up with more ideas,” designers, healthcare specialists smart everything,” she says. suggestions from parents who says Bourbeau. A $500 award and parents gathered at the MIT for user-focused design went Media Lab for a hackathon called to Second Nature. Their pump Make the Breast Pump Not Suck. mimicked biology: a flange Their goal: to spend two days shaped like a baby’s mouth, radically reimagining the a retractable moving tongue, device that innovation forgot. and a pneumatic pump made The design has changed little with balloons all helped milk flow. since portable pumps became At the helm of Second Nature widely available more than 20 years was local mother Kristy Johnson. ago. Many mothers need to use She spent several days before the one when they go back to work so event looking up breastfeeding their milk does not stop, while diagrams and sketching out others have to express milk ideas. “This technology seems because they can’t breastfeed so cemented in the past. There’s aSmarter pumps in the making– got to be a better way to do it.” n normally. Others choose to do Aviva Rutkin
Express delivery
27 September 2014 | NewScientist | 19