Barrington Mom-Entrepreneurs Launch NuRoo Pocket Shirt Nationwide
Friday, January 18, 2013
Babies and their moms stay skin-to-skin and cozy in NuRoo Pocket, the creation of Barrington mompreneurs Hope Parish and Daniela Jensen.
The first and only babywearing shirt, the NüRoo Pocket offers convenience, comfort and fashion for moms practicing Skin-to-Skin contact with their newborns. The NüRoo Pocket affords mom the time to spend Skin-to-Skin by ensuring their baby remains in the optimal position, while providing her with stylish coverage, and hands free mobility. The shirt will launch at Babies-R-Us this month, for a retail price of $59.99.
“We fell in love with Skin-to-Skin contact after being introduced to the benefits by our nurse midwives, said Daniela Jensen and Hope Parish, co-founders of NüRoo. "Coming home from the hospital to active families didn’t allow for the time to lay with baby Skin-to-Skin. After searching high and low for a product that offered coverage and mobility and coming up empty handed, the idea for The NüRoo Pocket was born."
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Skin-to-Skin contact, also referred to as Kangaroo Care, is a holding technique where baby wears only a diaper, and is positioned vertically on mom’s bare chest, creating chest-to-chest contact. Over 40 years of research has proven that in the early months of life, Skin-to-Skin contact creates remarkable benefits for both mom and baby. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests skin-to-skin contact begin immediately after delivery until completion of the first breastfeeding and is encouraged throughout the postpartum period. When practiced for an uninterrupted 60 minutes, Skin-to-Skin can help accelerate baby’s brain development, reduce crying + colic, enhance their immunity, improve their quality of sleep and more. There are advantages for mom too, as it speeds her recovery time, increases her milk production and reduces the risk for postpartum depression.
How did these mothers get from seeing a need to creating a product this innovative? "The inspiration was born from the need to function as a multi-tasking mom of 3, but not wanting to sacrifice the ability to give baby all the benefits Skin-to-Skin contact offers," said Hope Parish, who hired an expert seamstress to create a prototype. "We worked with a sourcing agent to finalize the pattern and get us production ready. Over our year of development, we created our own fabric blend, test fit close to 200 moms for feedback, and bid the job to multiple manufacturers."
Mompreneurs go big
The two mompreneurs (it's a title they enjoy) decided that being first to market with something this new was something they wanted to maintain, so instead of slowly rolling out their product in small lots in small stores, they went big. "Babies R Us really believes in our product and offered us an exclusive launch in exchange for a fair amount of support," Parish said. "We are also looking to introduce this product to the hospitals for inpatient use, offering mom the opportunity to practice hours of Skin-to-Skin time throughout her hospital stay."
The NüRoo Pocket is available in 3 sizes (XS/S, M/L, XL), fitting pre-pregnancy sizes 0-16. The product collection includes styles in black or teal, with a multi-colored patterned support belt included. Available in January 2013 at babiesrus.com and February 2013 at select Babies ʻR Us retail locations.
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