Fraupow: How Do You Get Maternity
Support During A Pandemic?

Being a new mum is hard at the best of times. Going through pregnancy, giving birth and adding a baby into your life creates a seismic shift that splits your life into a ‘before’ and ‘after’ that nothing can really prepare you for. All of the day to day difficulties of pregnancy and parenting are magnified when you’re tired. Things you don’t expect such as restless legs, all day nausea, workplace issues, worries about baby’s movement and growth and a relentless craving for bacon crisps can really get on top of you without support. That’s why Fraupow, a woman owned company who make hands free breast pumps, are making it their mission to provide support for women through their products and their actions. Fraupow founder Sunita Boyes is our guest writer today, telling us a bit about why she does what she does… 

Sunita’s story

I was born in the UK to an Indian family who worked extremely hard to create a great life for us. Both in my family and wider culture I have always been surrounded by these strong women, who tirelessly do whatever needs to be done. Inspired by their strength, I decided to use the opportunities I had available to me as a woman in the UK to create something that would support others. So, with my toddler on my lap, sitting on my bed (as my husband had taken over the home office during lockdown) I created Fraupow.

As a Mother myself I have been through (and still go through!) the universal struggles that Mums face. These have been magnified by the pandemic, with women facing loneliness and isolation like never before as they have been distanced from their friends and family. As antenatal classes, pregnancy yoga sessions and Mum and baby groups have all gone online or closed down entirely, the opportunity to meet and share experiences with other women going through the same thing has dwindled, leaving pregnant women to go through it without that woman to woman support that is so valuable.

A Maternal Mental Health Alliance study showed that perinatal mental health issues have jumped from 10-15% to 60-70% over the past year, as a direct result of the stress and isolation caused by being pregnant during a global pandemic.

I am really proud to be supporting women through our recent launch of a free midwife chat service, available weekly through Fraupow’s website and free to anyone who wants to get some expert advice and support. You can get reassurance about symptoms, answers to questions, and signposting to specialist medical support if needed. Midwife support is available to every pregnant woman at the touch of a button, on your phone or computer, through our new live chat service every Friday.

At Fraupow we are passionate about creating genuinely useful solutions to the problems parents face, in order that they can focus on enjoying and living life with their baby. My ambition on starting Fraupow was to create a product that would support other women, and be accessible to every milking mum. This has been a really tough year for pregnant women and new mums, we created the Fraupow breast pump and free midwife chat as ways to provide support to those mums and make it as affordable and accessible as possible. If we can help mums not to feel isolated then we’ll have done our job.

We designed the Fraupow Breast Pump for Mums who want or need to pump their milk, with the aim of putting Mum first and making it as comfortable and user friendly as possible in every way. You have enough on your plate without technology letting you down! We made it as lightweight as possible, with a large capacity for collected milk, and made it wearable and wire free to sit inside your bra so you can carry on with the million other things you need to do.

Around 640,000 babies are born each year in the UK - that’s an awful lot of Mums who are having to find a way through pregnancy and the first year without the established 1:1 medical and social support that is usually so beneficial. Whilst we can’t fix the whole problem, we are trying our best to use our platform to do a little bit to help. We are constantly amazed by the Mums we speak to through social media or who order from us, they are doing a brilliant job and we are so happy to support them in whatever small way we can.