Our commitment to families
Translation missing: en.happymami.about.why
In Spain, 75% of babies use a bottle while they are still in the feeding stage (INE). The evidence is clear: more than 50% of babies who try a generic bottle lose breastfeeding.
As midwives who advise on feeding, we see this up close. There are many reasons to combine breast and bottle, and that is why we made a bottle that belongs to each mother.
A tool to help each mother and her baby combine breastfeeding and a bottle, without breastfeeding being lost.
Today, 68% of babies in Spain are breastfed in the first six weeks. By six months that falls to 24.7% (INE). That is far from WHO guidance, and from Norway (71%), Sweden (61%) and Germany (57%). Work like Happymami helps those figures move closer.
We keep supporting and protecting breastfeeding, and we stand with mothers who cannot or do not want to breastfeed, or who have to stop sooner than they planned. I am a mother. I am a woman. I am free.
“We do not judge. We help.” From the start, the aim has been to support breastfeeding without judging how a mother feeds her baby. As the president of Spain’s midwives’ federation says: “I would rather see a happy mother giving a bottle than an anguished woman breastfeeding.”
Back to where the bottle began
The bottle was invented to replace breastfeeding. Only the baby’s mouth, and a shape that made sucking easy, were considered. We started somewhere else: we do not want to replace breastfeeding. We want to look after it.
After years of study, the Happymami bottle takes breastfeeding as a whole.
The mother’s anatomy, let-down, the stages of a feed, what the baby needs and how the baby sucks. From that comes a bottle that exists nowhere else, made with care, with the mother and her baby at the centre.
And from there, we kept going
Generic bottles claimed to copy breastfeeding. Which breastfeeding? Breasts differ, and none are the same. Each Happymami design follows the “projection” a baby would meet if their mother’s breast became a teat.
A bottle that stands in for your feeding has to be well made. We chose materials that give the right shape and a soft touch, close to skin, with a colour that feels natural and settles the baby.
Engineering used for a baby’s palate. What we want is a feed that feels good.
While we developed it we looked at every practical need. Every teat has a double anti-colic system built in, with no extra parts.
They are easy to clean. The wide opening goes in the dishwasher, and no special brush is needed. They take heat, and they work with bottle warmers, sterilisers and a microwave. Teat and cup are high-grade silicone.
Safe for your baby: no BPA, and none of the substances often found in plastic. If it falls, it does not shatter like glass.
One to one. One midwife for each mother
There is more than the bottle. When you come to Happymami you are not only buying a bottle designed for your baby. You also get support most people never expect from a bottle. That is why we built the Happymami one-to-one protocol.
One to one is how midwives work: one midwife stays with one woman through birth. One midwife, one woman. We bring that to the bottle. This is what is included:
- Advice from our midwives on WhatsApp, if you need it for the design.
- Guidance worked out in detail, so offering the bottle goes well.
- Express delivery in 24 to 48 hours.
- Help with doubts and difficulties.
- If the baby will not take it, we ask for videos of feeds so we can see what is happening.
- The motherhood guides on your phone.
- The bottle you and your baby need to look after your breastfeeding.
There is now a bottle made for one feeding journey. The chance that the baby accepts it is higher, because it was designed for them.
Aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals
At Happymami, the result is tied to the wellbeing of families and to the health of the planet. That is why the work follows the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in the places we can measure.
The commitment shows in direct action. We support decent work and gender equality (Goals 8 and 5), with a fair and safe workplace and room for the team to grow. We protect life on land (Goal 15) with policies that reduce the impact of the supply chain. And we take part in partnerships (Goal 17) to share what we know.
The work also has an indirect effect. By creating stable jobs (Goal 1), we contribute to prosperity.
Day-to-day work is set up to look after water and climate (Goals 6 and 13), to lower emissions and to keep that attention. Also health and learning (Goals 3 and 4): health at work, and the chance to keep learning.
