baby talk

First WordBaby Talk

Build It Better

Improving on the nursing bra—and creating community.

—ALEXANDRA FROST

WHEN SARAH KALLILE, A MOM OF THREE GIRLS FROM DAYTON, OHIO, WAS

breastfeeding her second daughter in 2021, she was frustrated. “I wanted a better [nursing bra] that was chic and leakproof,” she says, but she came up empty after an online search and polling friends. “It’s a universal pain point,” she says.

With the help of her mom, who was a seamstress, and a $10,000 grant from the Female Founder Collective Big Pitcher competition, she worked through six prototypes before launching Lunnie in March 2022. The cups aren’t removable, so it maintains its shape. Kallile says it’s six times more absorbent than leading competitors, and the v-neck design is “gorgeous.”

But Lunnie is about more than a bra. “It always bothered me how much attention is given to pregnancy, yet after a mom gives birth she often is forgotten. Postpartum is a very challenging time physically, mentally, and emotionally,” she says. “Moms are the real MVPs of society but they’re not treated that way.” Lunnie is a part of a movement to support moms , working against stigmas preventing them from fl ourishing postpartum.

Building a Diverse Baby Bookshelf

Move over, Goodnight Moon. To start local babies and toddlers off early with diverse and meaningful books, we asked Arin Gentry, executive director of the As Told By Foundation for some recommendations. Gentry says, “Growing up, I cannot recall reading many books written by Black authors. When I was pregnant with my now 2-year-old son, I made it my priority to expose him to books with characters that looked like him early on. At the same time, I wanted to ensure other young Black boys and girls had the same type of access and representation.” —A.F.

Here’s what she recommends for your bookshelf:

Please, Baby, Please, by Spike Lee Whose Knees Are These, by Jabari Asim I Am Every Good Thing, by Derrick Barnes I Am Enough, by Grace Byers

Ain’t That a Kick

Preventing stillbirth through an app. —A.F.

There might be nothing more devastating than having a stillborn baby, a truth that Cincinnati mom, teacher, and Count the Kicks Ambassador DaShonda Watkins knows all too well. She credits the app and organization Count the Kicks with giving her the confi dence that her rainbow boys Weston and Winston would have a “healthy birthday Earthside.”

Five Iowa moms who lost daughters in the early 2000s created the tool. Tracking fetal movement in the third trimester been connected to a 30 percent decrease in stillbirths, according to research from Norway. The app encourages parents to count kicks daily and to learn the average amount of time it should take to get to 10 movements. “ [It gave] me the opportunity to bond with our boys before they were born,” Watkins says.