Respect the Boob: An Interview with Mamava’s Sascha Mayer
Sparking a revolution in how we think about pumping and breastfeeding in public spaces.
Sascha Mayer and I first connected after the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas in 2016 when I had a hell of a time pumping breastmilk for the 36 hours I spent away from my nursing four month old. She was the answer to the “there has to be a better way” question. And there is — MAMAVA. Perhaps you’ve seen or even used the Mamava pods at the airport (JFK, OAK, BUR, to name a few) or at your local stadium (Fenway!)?
Mamava pods provide a clean, comfortable, easy place for moms who venture out of the house with and without their nursing wee ones. And with the launch of their new app, you can more easily track down the closest pod or a clean, vetted spot to feed or pump.
If that weren’t enough, Mamava is on a mission to normalize pumping and breastfeeding. With the happy breasts logo and the words “Privacy for pumping and breastfeeding” emblazoned on the front of each pod, they also serve as a simple reminder to anyone who spots them — breastfeeding is a natural part of life, get over your squeamishness that milk comes out of a human and support women who feed the tiny citizens of the world from their own bodies.
I love that you do not shy away from the purpose of the pods. Where did the logo and pod design come from?
For the logo, we wanted it to be overt and playful and undeniable. The pod is a solution but it is also a billboard for the pitch:
Any woman who chooses to breastfeed should have the space to do it. We wanted to make breastfeeding a real choice.
We set out to design something that would facilitate let down, make a baby comfortable and make a mom comfortable.
There is a design solution for everything. It’s not rocket science.
So, what was that moment like? When you were like, “no one is doing it, let’s go for it.”
We had a brand, the name, and the cause in our heads for about 8 years. Honestly, it was with the Affordable Care Act mandating accommodations for employers with more than fifty employees that made it real. Once it was actual policy, there was a stronger business case for it.
The culture finally caught up with our idea, and it was not going to be as much pushing uphill. We realized that we had to do it; there was no other solution out there.
How has being a mother shaped or driven the mission and the founding of Mamava?
When you became a mom, your awareness about your own children, their roles and how they are perceived in the world, tightens. I wanted to raise feminists but also have them supported in the world. The biggest challenge that I kept seeing was the challenge around breastfeeding.
Starting Mamava was a natural, common sense, logical thing to do.
The other thing that happens when you have a baby is this real growth and shift as a person. Things gets real. I became a better employee. I became a better brand strategist. You have to manage and navigate the world differently. You have to make decisions. You have to be competent. You have to care less about failure. You have this new perspective — if I can do these incredible things, from pregnancy to birth to raising another human being, then I can definitely handle all these other things in life.
Since you aren’t selling the lactation pods directly to the women who benefit from them, your customers aren’t really your customers, per se. You are walking into a room with Facilities guys, how has your sales pitch evolved?
In the beginning, we were really explaining the physiology of breastfeeding and why women can’t just “wait until they get home” to pump breastmilk. We were educating. We would often hear, “Whoa, that is a big revelation.”
The rates of breastfeeding are picking up now in pretty dramatic ways, which definitely helps us position the need for the pods.
For example, we started with the airport pods as our prototype. One Director of Facilities, who we started conversations with, had a vague idea about the problem — he had been receiving emails from traveling moms telling him about the lack of a lactation room for years. But it wasn’t until we came in and explained the physiology, that it become apparent to him how little he understood, or even appreciated, about the problem.
When faced with this starting point, we like to maintain a sense of humor about it. We usually lead with: “Breasts can be many things. Fun and sexy… and practical.” We might be the best people to communicate and educate on this issue.
And for the “customers” that actually use the product, what role have they played on the sales side?
For our particular case of having the user mom versus the Facilities guy, customer definitely comes into play.
The millennial mom is wonderful for this. These women, who expect a level of respect and support from the places and brands they interact with, are our customers even if they aren’t the ones buying the pod. They push and lift the concept and freely share their thoughts on social media.
And with social media, we could provide proof cases for the value of the pod — show how happy and appreciative these women are.
We could show “This is what happens when Target provides a space to breastfeed and this is what happens when an employer does not provide a lactation room” and say “Which side do you want to be on?’”
Shifting just a bit — what is the one thing you want to see changed in the world by the time your daughter and her peers are thinking about motherhood?
My daughter is such a strong personality so I am not too concerned about her. What she wants to do, she will just do. My kids are at an age where they consume a lot of media and see a world that is more diverse and creative than I ever did at their age. It’s a world with openness, where people who are colorful and interesting and diverse can solve problems together. And I think they are going to, they are very optimistic about that.
What word/phrase captures how you think of pregnancy or motherhood?
It’s sort of a selfish selflessness. You have to be selfless because it is about the survival of the child. But it is also selfish because you are bringing a living being into this world in your image and molding them.
I guess it flips back and forth.
Are you game for sharing your birth story?
My two births were so different. For my son, we have one of those birth stories which was just super long labor. We went into labor on Friday night and I did not have this baby till Sunday at 10. It was back labor. But what was excellent was that they were monitoring me and they were monitoring him and they knew that the baby is fine. I just kept laboring and that was really wonderful. And, he is like that as a human being — just super easy go lucky and even tempered. He takes his time.
For my daughter, I did not have anesthesia or pain medication of any kind. It was totally different, and it was very empowering.
It was startling and empowering.
When I explain it to people, I was like “I think I am levitating from pain”. It sort of feels like you are floating off the floor with the pain of the contraction. But when she was born, I had this athlete’s feeling of achievement. It was still a pretty long labor — from 11 o’clock at night to 8 or something in the morning, laboring the whole time — But I remember, at the end I was giving high fives, it was that kind of feeling.
For me too, I don’t know if it is unusual or not, but I definitely got the feeling that I need to know these children. I was like, “Nice to meet you. Welcome to the family. We are together.”
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