UCSF Honors Breastfeeding Disruptor And Wearable Pump Inventor, Says Dao Health

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif., June 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- UCSF recently honored a physician alumna for creating the very first commercially successful wearable breast pump, according to Dao Health, the company she co-founded that brought her idea to life. Her invention's success has unleashed a wave of change which promises to measurably impact global public health by improving breastfeeding rates and set new standards for the future.

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Dr. Stella Dao, a graduate of the UCSF School of Medicine, was presented "The Audacious Alumni" award by UCSF Chancellor and neonatologist Dr. Sam Hawgood, at the annual alumni weekend in San Francisco, which is being shared through the school's social media channels this month. UCSF is one of the top medical schools and health care research institutions in the world. Chancellor Hawgood said, "Dr. Dao's work stands out for its audacity in challenging an entrenched system that forced a new mother to make the choice either to give up her employment, or to give up on providing the best for the child's health and wellbeing." 

More than 15 years ago, after the birth of her premature twins, Dr. Dao found herself reliant on a breast pump. It was archaic. Traditional consumer breast pumps look like a piece of hospital equipment that have simply been put into a retail box and given to women to use at home and in the workplace. They are designed for use behind a curtain, with a hospital gown easily removed. They are not designed for use in everyday environments. A natural problem solver, trained at UCSF and in her Stanford residency to focus on root causes, Dr. Dao saw very clearly the disconnect between what the breast pump industry was offering, and what women actually needed.

In late 2013 her company launched a full line of wearable Freemie breast pumps and accessories in the United States. Freemie has inspired a burst of innovation on its coattails in the historically slow-moving infant feeding industry. Consumers are gravitating to these wearable tools, changing their behaviors and challenging outdated norms. Wearable breast pumps now promise higher breastfeeding rates globally by helping women continue to lactate. Young families with new mouths to feed can benefit financially by allowing mothers to work, and by reducing or eliminating the need to buy expensive and inferior manufactured infant formulas.

It may seem obvious now, but Dao deduced - in a time when lactation was a subject that was not discussed in polite mixed company - that the equipment was the primary problem. Women were set up to fail by the inadequate tools they were given for the job. She saw complaints about the lack of public and employer support programs as far less important in solving the actual problems women were facing. Dao theorized that situation-appropriate, easy-to-use and effective tools would help the vast majority of women to continue breastfeeding. It struck her as wrong and unnecessary that women had to give their jobs or their older children less than one hundred percent in order to pump, or quit breastfeeding and resort to infant formula.

Her ingenious insight was the need for an effective pump system that mimicked the shape of a woman's breast, so that it could be worn in the bra under her clothing. This would eliminate most of the barriers that women confront in daily life that keep them from pumping frequently enough, which causes their milk to dry up. Dao invented the Freemie breast pump system on her kitchen counter with a little help from her husband. When they got some prototypes working, they quickly realized they were on to something. The couple then spent years working to refine the idea while building a team to bring it to market.

In an age when most women need to work outside the home, wearable breast pumps struck a chord. While still a small part of the overall market, they are rapidly growing. Many breastfeeding and health care professionals recognize wearables will be a key component of improving global breastfeeding rates. Today, Freemie Cups and pumps dominate the wearables category Dao created. Freemie products are available through all major insurance plans, at major retailers like Walmart and Amazon, and in select international markets, with solutions that start at well under $100. The company's production capacity will quadruple this year alone, allowing expanded domestic and international distribution.

Dao recounted a story from her days in medical school, where an annual ritual for fourth year students was a lecture that was nothing but countless images of naked bodies. They were all very different, and that was the point. "If you're going to make medical products for people, you have to know the anatomy," Dao says. "Women come in all shapes and sizes. They're never perfectly symmetrical from right to left, and their bodies and breasts are continually changing postpartum. A one-size-fits-all design will never work for all women." She continued, "We're just scratching the surface right now. We know traditional breast pumps fail 9 out of 10 women that need them. That's an empirical observation. Ninety percent of working women fail to meet breastfeeding goals. We don't see it as mom's failure, or society's failure. That is an equipment failure," says Dao. Now with more than a dozen different sizes and fits in the company's wearable offerings, Dao estimates that the tools her company currently offers can help about 7 out of 10 women. "We're continually working on more designs, and our experience tells us we should eventually be able to help 9 out of 10 women succeed." The company expects to launch several more designs later this year.

Commercial success has proven Dao's diagnosis of the problem was spot-on, as thousands of customer testimonials give her invention credit as the reason these moms have been able to continue breastfeeding. Her company is certain that their approach to wearables will eventually become the new standard of care in hospital maternity wards, as recognition grows that these tools are necessary for the vast majority of modern women to successfully sustain lactation and breastfeed.

Globally, serious healthcare investors see simple and inexpensive Freemie wearable breast pumps as a real threat to the dominance of manufactured infant formula. The value proposition is simple, and pent-up demand for viable solutions is great, thanks to the widespread awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding. Spend as little as a hundred dollars or less on Freemie wearable accessories, or a couple thousand dollars on infant formula. The company is intent on making their products affordable for women in the developing world, where they see substantial growth opportunities, because infant formula takes a much bigger bite out of the average family's budget. The $50 billion infant formula industry seems to have taken note. The company has been mysteriously approached by several industry representatives in recent years. Dao never expected to find herself the protagonist in such a David and Goliath-type disruption story, but takes it in stride. "As I pursued this idea, I was fixated on the potential impact on public health. I just want to help women give their babies the best food possible. But it turns out that economics has probably played a bigger role in causing all this change. For many moms, the best thing they can do for their babies is to keep their jobs and manage their finances. We're helping them do both."

The annual spring UCSF Alumni Weekend and awards ceremony in San Francisco is being highlighted through the month of June through the school's social media channels. The weekend celebration recognized some of the most influential and accomplished leaders in the world of medicine and public health policy, including at least one Nobel laureate. Dao said of her recognition, "It's humbling. I've always strived to live up to the opportunity I was given to come to UCSF."

SOURCE Dao Health

Related Links

https://freemie.com/