MOTHER’S PRIDE
ANJALI RAJ 26 LACTATION AND CHILD BIRTH EDUCATOR, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
The idea of creating a maternal wellness service came naturally to Anjali Raj. Running into expectant and working mothers visiting her mother Ganga, a fitness trainer, Anjali realised that motherhood entailed many common problems and a professional maternal wellness service would be in high demand.
In 2016, Anjali teamed up with her mother and sister Suma to set up a company, iLove9Months. Next year, they created a mobile app to guide would-be and working mothers through the ups and downs of motherhood. “We also found that breastfeeding is a major worry for working mothers. So we launched Domatio, a breastfeeding pod,” says Ganga Raj. “Working mothers struggle to breastfeed their babies and tend to opt for early weaning.”
The Domatio facility came up in November this year at Thiruvananthapuram’s Technopark, where a majority of the 50,000plus employees are young women, and had instant takers. “I use the pod to express milk and store it in the fridge provided there, taking it home in the evening,” says Nithya, one of the many Technopark employees who use the service. “That my baby gets breast milk even when I am not with him is a priceless feeling. I don’t feel guilty about returning to work early after my maternity leave.”
Anjali feels there is a need to build infrastructure for nursing mothers so that they can not only breastfeed in public but also be able to express and store milk at workplaces. Her target: make it a reality for 15 million women every year.
“The lactation pod will inspire new mothers to breastfeed. It revolutionises breastfeeding support for women in the public and at workplaces” Dr Anne Varghese, Psychologist, National Institute of Speech and Hearing, Thiruvananthapuram