Pump It Up
When Janica Alvarez returned to her biotech research job after her third maternity leave in 2011, she found herself back on a familiar path—to a lactation room, where she would suffer through the pain of pumping all over again. So in 2013, she and her husband, Jeff—who at the time was leading product development at a surgical robotics company—gave the draconian apparatus a high-tech makeover. Now San Francisco area–based Naya Health sells the intelligently designed Naya Smart Breast Pump, which has an accompanying app that automatically tracks pumping sessions, feeding schedules, and milk supply.
From Air to Water
When Jeff took his wife’s pump to the garage hoping to end her misery, he realized the suction wasn’t powerful enough and the breast shields were too stiff. “The thing needed to be completely re-engineered,” he says. He replaced the hard plastic in the breast shields with softer, more pliable silicone. And because air does not produce enough force to move the
