This new nipple shield solves one of the biggest mysteries of breastfeeding

For many new mothers, one of the most mysterious and elusive parts of breastfeeding is the latch. While some babies’ mouths manage to automatically make an airtight seal around their mother’s nipple, others can have difficulties, or physical impediments, that make achieving good suction and proper nursing almost impossible.

One solution care providers have offered is the nipple shield, a cuplike perforated silicone device that fits on top of a mother’s nipple and areola and improves the way babies make their latch. It’s typically a short-term method for addressing issues ranging from tongue-ties to flat nipples to engorgement. The problem with nipple shields—and even for those nursing mothers and babies with a textbook latch—is that it can be hard for moms to know when milk is actually flowing.

Baby brand Munchkin is trying to eliminate some of that mystery with the Flow Nipple Shield +, a new baby nutrition device that works like a conventional nipple shield but which also has an innovative extended channel for the milk to flow through, offering mothers a visual confirmation that babies are successfully latched and effectively nursing.

Steven B. Dunn, founder and CEO of WHY Brands, Munchkin’s parent company, says the device addresses some of the literal pain points of breastfeeding while aiming at a bigger target.

“We describe our product as a nipple shield because it helps explain to mom what it is. We’re not selling a product to reduce pain, though it does reduce pain just like another nipple shield. We’re creating and designing a new category,” Dunn says. “This is a breastfeeding insight tool.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusively breastfeeding newborns for the first six months of life, and supports continued breastfeeding for the first two years of life. But according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, only about 60% of babies in the U.S. are still breastfeeding at six months, and only about a quarter of babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months. Part of the shortage is that many mothers think they aren’t able to breastfeed effectively. A 2013 study from Pediatrics found that a perception of insufficient milk supply was the leading reason mothers stopped breastfeeding, despite only 5% of mothers actually having those symptoms. That perception led to 60% of mothers stopping breastfeeding earlier than they wanted to.

In the face of these numbers, Munchkin saw an opportunity to give mothers more information about what was actually happening during the breastfeeding process. The innovation of the Flow Nipple Shield + is a unique milk channel that brings milk on a looping path from the nipple to the baby’s mouth, jutting out from the latch zone so that a mother (or other observer) can easily see milk moving through.

“This channel, the width, and dimensions of it, went through a lot of test and learn, test, and learn,” says Dunn. “It was probably the most difficult product to manufacture in Munchkin’s 30-year history.”

The nipple shield’s design has been in development for almost a decade. Munchkin’s design and product teams worked with lactation consultants and engineers to fine-tune the form of the device, and to ensure the milk channel was long enough to provide visual confirmation without making it too hard for babies to get the milk all the way through. They also worked to reduce its overall size. “We purposely made the product as thin as possible with food grade silicone to maximize the skin-to-skin contact between mom and baby,” Dunn says.

During product development, Munchkin launched a 12-month clinical trial of the device, to gauge its effectiveness in encouraging more breastfeeding. Among the 301 participants in the trial, more than 93% were still breastfeeding at the six-month mark. “Our research shows that if moms get confident, especially in the first month of breastfeeding, they’re much more likely to continue,” Dunn says.

Available in four sizes, the Flow Nipple Shield + retails for $40 and includes a special syringe for cleaning the surface and the milk channel. The device will be available in the U.S., Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. “It’s probably the largest global campaign we’ll ever do,” says Diana Barnes, chief brand officer at WHY.

But the nature of the product has also posed a problem for its marketing. The best way to explain the product, Barnes says, is to show it being used during breastfeeding, which requires at least partial exposure of a breast. “Some vendors have chosen not to show our assets,” says Barnes. “I was actually quite disappointed.”

That hasn’t stopped the company from pursuing ad placements around the world, including in Times Square. “Our goal is to normalize what is the most natural thing to women since the beginning of time,” Barnes says.

The Flow Nipple Shield + is an attempt to make that natural process less mysterious and frustrating.

“We do not want to be preachy. We don’t want to push. If mom’s goal is a day, if mom’s goal is a month, or six months, or a year, we want to do whatever we can do to provide insights,” Dunn says. “This just shows your milk is flowing, your milk is not flowing. It’s a green light or red light. And we think that information is so key for mom making her choices, whatever it’s going to be.”

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