Dec. 21—When local entrepreneur Sarah Kallile was postpartum and unable to find a comfortable but still functional bra to help her while she was breastfeeding, she sought out to create her own.
"I had the idea during the pandemic," Kallile said. "It was January 2021. I was a stay-at-home mom. I had, at the time, just two little girls. I was breastfeeding my youngest, and I was really just fed up with my nursing bra, with how it looked and how it functioned."
Women already have to go through the process of buying a new bra around the third trimester of the pregnancy due to their sizes going up about a cup size at that time, said Katy Boyd, a lactation consultant at Kettering Health. It becomes even more challenging to find a nursing bra that fits and is comfortable, new moms have told Boyd.
The cut of traditional nursing bras were unflattering, Kallile said, and they didn't protect against the leakage that can happen when a woman's body is breastfeeding.
"A lot of moms will wear these additional nursing pads within their bras so leaks don't show through your top, but the problem is, is these pads, they're not attached to your bra all, they're always shifting, and they're always moving around," Kallile said.
She wanted to find a bra with leakproof technology, and when she couldn't find one, she created one. Lunnie's nursing bra contains leakproof, sewn-in pads that are up to six times more absorbent than competitors, according to Kallile.
Kallile knew this was an issue other breastfeeding moms were going through, so she launched her business, Lunnie, in March 2022 with her patent-pending postpartum bra. Kallile, who is now a mom to three daughters, combined her daughters' names to come up with the name "Lunnie" for her business.
Kallile has since partnered with Kettering Health, which gave away approximately 60 pairs of Lunnie bras and is continuing to sell Lunnie bras in its First Steps Breastfeeding Center of Excellence, located at 1989 Miamisburg Centerville Road. in Centerville. The center is on the campus of Kettering Washington Township (formerly Southview Medical Center).
"I know firsthand the importance of a good nursing bra for new moms," Boyd said. "Our moms who received the Lunnie bras are thrilled. They feel more confident wearing a bra that is both functional and flattering."
Earlier this year, Lunnie was the winner of the Raj Soin Award for Innovation. Kettering Health wanted to find a way to support Lunnie after that, Boyd said, which led to this partnership between Lunnie and First Steps.