PLYMOUTH, Minnesota — A Minnesota woman's own experience with breast pumping inspired her to try and make the experience better for other mothers.
"Women's health and women's innovation is on the rise right now and we're really a part of that wave," Mooneyham said.
Back in 2021 after the birth of Mooneyham's daughter, nursing went well. But when Mooneyham went back to work at eight weeks postpartum, "I was really shocked to figure out that using the breast pump for me was so inefficient that it took four pumping sessions to get one bottle of milk for my daughter, which obviously was unsustainable. So I was forced to introduce formula sooner than I planned. I'm grateful that formula exists but I was frustrated that the breast pump technology failed me so much that I was forced to do something that I didn't choose to do. And I know that I'm not alone in that."
Mooneyham believed there had to be a better way. She started to think about how she could introduce the missing elements from a breastfeeding baby into the pumping experience.
While pumping relies on suction, "The mother is responding to multiple cues. It's suction; it's the warmth of the baby's mouth; it's the pressure of their jaw and hands against the breast. All of that is working in tandem to help a mother release breast milk and the breast pump is suction-only," Mooneyham said. "It's missing a lot of the elements that exist when a baby is nursing which is how our bodies have learned to respond and release breast milk."
While working on the idea, Mooneyham was introduced to Jennie Lynch — a nonprofit founder with experience around child development and family well-being. The pair teamed up to launch Momease Solutions.
"I just really have a heart for mission-driven businesses and to its core, Momease is a mission-driven business," said Lynch, who joined on as co-founder and president. Mooneyham serves as the co-founder and CEO of the startup.
The pair had an initial engineering consultant who helped them with design elements for the pumping bra. They then teamed up with Minneapolis-based Kablooe Design to come up with a prototype.
"We're working towards our alpha prototype right now which is going to be representative of our commercial end unit. I actually had a son in May of this year so I've actually been able to test our minimum viable prototype at home and figure out kind of the final missing pieces of our design to ensure that our product is functional but also as convenient to use as possible," Mooneyham said.
Momease's pump-enhancing bra is meant to help collect more milk in less time. The bra circulates heated water to add both warmth and massage in key locations to encourage milk release. It's a closed system that doesn't come into contact with the breast milk.
"For my daughter, I had to introduce formula before she was six months of age. My son is five months and exclusively breastfed and I can credit a lot of that to Momease," Mooneyham said.
Last month, the company took home the grand prize at MN Cup — the country's largest statewide startup competition.
"It was their 20th season and over 3,200 businesses applied to be a part of this historic season. We ended up winning the grand prize and then also the top woman-owned or top woman-led business by the Carlson Family Foundation," Lynch said. "It was just a really wonderful experience."
They ended up with more than $100,000 in prize money which will help them improve Momease's prototype. The startup plans to do a clinical study in collaboration with the University of Minnesota next year. MN Cup prize money will help them produce enough custom bras for the women recruited for the clinical study.
Mooneyham said the goal is to get the product on the market no later than 2026.