Make breast pumps not suck! Calla launches fundraiser to revolutionize breast pumps with new technology that mimics the suckling tongue
Calla, an innovative breast pump start-up, launched its 60-day crowdfunding campaign to bring their wearable manual breast pump to the market. Calla’s mission is to revolutionize breast pumps by mimicking the infant’s suckling tongue.
Breast pumps suck… They are often ineffective and painful because they ignore suckling, the natural interaction between mother and baby during breastfeeding.
This is a problem because millions of mothers rely on breast pumps to feed their babies, whose health depends on a 150-year-old concept of the “sucking machine” that misses the importance of the tongue as the key driver for comfort and effective breastfeeding.
Calla’s mission is to revolutionize breast pumps and make them comfortable and more effective by introducing the action of the suckling tongue. Calla is launching its fundraiser campaign and is calling on moms to support this ground-breaking initiative by getting one of the first Calla models: the wearable manual breast pump, that mimics suckling.
The concept of using vacuum machines as breast pumps dates back 150 years and hasn’t changed since. Millions of mothers rely on breast pumps every day to give breast milk to their babies and to this day they are expected to use machines that are based on an outdated idea and ignore the fundamentals of the natural breastfeeding process. Calla understands that suckling is fundamentally important for comfortable and effective breastfeeding and is on a mission to improve overall infant health by introducing a technology that follows nature’s way of suckling. Calla is calling on mothers and partners who understand the silent struggle of breast pumping to take action, support the initiative and change breast pumps forever.
Breast pumps suck… That is literally how they work. They apply vacuum pressure on the breast and suck the milk out. But sucking is not the correct and natural trigger for mothers’ breasts to produce and release milk. The correct trigger is suckling. Many of the fundamental issues with breast pumps are rooted in the fact that they ignore the interaction between the suckling tongue and the breast.
Eva Nagy-Gannon, Founder of Calla said, “I often ask moms if pumping feels anything like breastfeeding. When they say no, and that it feels more like being hooked to a vacuum cleaner, I am not surprised. I had the same experience.”
Eva is a mother, who breastfed both her boys and struggled with breast pumps. “It was painful, and I could barely pump any milk. I tried different brands, different flange sizes and inserts, but nothing worked. The worst thing was that it made me think I don’t have enough milk for my baby, which was absolutely not the case. I remember the day when someone posted an ultrasound video of an infant suckling and one thing became absolutely obvious to me: this is definitely not what breast pumps are doing,” said Eva.
As a result, Eva set out on a mission to develop a technology to make breast pumps not suck, but suckle. She received 2-year funding through the University of Galway in Ireland, where they worked with scientists and engineers to pin down the key functions of the suckling tongue and recreate it in a novel device. After many iterations, the Calla manual breast pump was born.
The Calla manual breast pump
Introducing Calla, the only wearable manual breast pump. The groundbreaking aspect of the Calla pump is the fact that it truly mimics the actions of the suckling tongue, but the design features are just as valuable.
It's the only wearable manual breast pump. It fits discretely inside the mother’s bra.
It fully expresses the milk, not like milk catchers that are used to catch excess milk.
One size fits all. Following nature's way, the different flange sizes become redundant.
Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign
There are a limited number of Calla pumps on offer during the crowdfunding campaign, which you can check out here. If you’re interested in supporting this ground-breaking mission for the benefit of mothers and babies, what better time to do so than now, during National Breastfeeding Month to put an end to the 150-year reign of the sucking machines and put breastfeeding at the centre of breast pump technologies.
About Calla
Calla is a spin-out company from the University of Galway in Ireland. Its main purpose is to revolutionize the breast pump industry and breast pumps more comfortable and effective for better pumping results and better overall infant health. The team received a 2-year research and development fund supported by Enterprise Ireland and the European Structural Fund that allowed them to develop the patented Calla technology. They are currently running a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to bring the new breast pump to the market. Mothers can support them by getting their Calla pump through the campaign, but they also hope to reach anyone who understands the struggle with pumping and want to see this changed.
Support Calla on Kickstarter.