How this pro-breastfeeding company might actually help new moms’ mental health
By Sarah Bregel
There’s a lot of money to be made off of making women (and mothers, in particular) feel like their bodies aren’t enough. We’re looking at you, Victoria’s Secret—not to mention makeup companies, cosmetic surgeons, and, oh yeah, the formula industry, which, while necessary, also routinely profits off of new mothers’ insecurities around breastfeeding.
Brands that empower women to feel good about breastfeeding? Those are harder to come by. But one newly launched pro-breastfeeding company seems to have the right idea.
Swehl seeks to reimagine the breastfeeding journey by providing just about everything families may need in terms of breastfeeding support. No, not just products (though forever bless the ones that actually work and feel like magic in those early nursing days), but education and emotional support, too, which is what new moms need more than anything. That’s something cofounders Elizabeth Myer and Betsy Riley, two moms who have personally felt the emotional toll of nursing, understand.
“We are all striving to feel validation in our experiences, especially in parenthood, which is notoriously isolating,” Riley tells Fast Company in an email. “These days, ‘community’ is almost a buzzword, but [community is] embedded into the DNA of Swehl.”
The company offers three avenues for support: products, education, and community. It’s launching its own products for every phase of the breastfeeding journey, and each product comes with an educational experience, paired with QR codes that lead to expert-led tutorials. The platform also provides small group “talk circles,” which take place on Zoom. In these groups, families can gain support in a nonjudgmental space. Because while a nipple shield is absolutely clutch when you need it, it doesn’t talk back.
We know that maternal mental health is its own kind of epidemic, with a lack of community living in modern-day culture largely to blame. That unmet need is a big reason why so many women stop breastfeeding before the six-week mark, even if they’d planned to nurse exclusively for the full six months recommended by the World Health Organization. There are medical reasons why some women can’t breastfeed, as well as deeply important and valid personal reasons why some don’t want to. But far too often, moms want to nurse their babies and don’t have the tools or support to succeed in doing so.
Few companies have offered to help fill the gaping hole that moms often fall into in the depths of the postpartum haze. That’s why one that allows new moms to feel seen and heard as they adjust to the most demanding schedule of their lives can feel so revolutionary.
It’s also likely issue why Swehl has raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding from backers such as Cleo Capital, Katia Beauchamp (cofounder, Birchbox), Betsy Fore (investment partner, XFactor Ventures), and Ron Finley (The Gangster Gardener). “We are utilizing this pre-seed funding as a vehicle to support the launch of Swehl’s fully integrated digital experience and physical tools, including the largest video library on breastfeeding and an innovative product suite,” says cofounder Elizabeth Myer.
Swehl doesn’t just try to sell to new moms in their weary and sleep-deprived state. It aims to prop them up even better than a Boppy pillow. Hopefully, it makes breastfeeding easier. But if it helps their mental health in a more tangible way, well, that’s its own kind of liquid gold.
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