Designing a human-centred system for the repair and reuse of electronic breastfeeding devices

Breastfeeding has proven health benefits for both mothers and babies, however the UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, with only 31% of babies exclusively breastfed by 6-8 weeks old (UNICEF, 2023). 90% of women stop breastfeeding before they want to (NHS National Maternity Review, 2016) due to pain, discomfort, difficulty pumping milk or returning to work. Electronic breast pumps provide much-needed support, however they are expensive and less accessible to parents on lower incomes. Brands do not offer refurbished devices for resale and purchase of used devices from marketplaces such as eBay and Facebook poses health, safety and hygiene risks. Most devices end up in landfill after a short period of use, contributing to a growing e-waste problem.

Despite market growth across the electronics and medical device repair industry, there are no systems or processes in place to facilitate the repair and reuse of breast pumps and other FemTech consumer products used in non-clinical settings. These challenges around healthcare, technology and circularity are central to the work of Oshun Labs and We Are Human who are partners on this project.

Our project combines technical, human-centered and systems-centred design research methods to fully explore challenges and barriers to developing a system for repair and reuse of FemTech devices, with specific focus on electronic breastfeeding devices. Working in partnership to ensure breadth of cross-sector expertise, design research skills and knowledge-sharing across the project, we will undertake technical testing and prototyping to inform our research approach, followed by interviews with device users, product designers, manufacturers and other key stakeholders to gain insight into a diverse range of perspectives to inform our system design.

By undertaking in-depth human-centred research with breastfeeding women, product designers and other key stakeholders, this project aims to identify repair and reuse opportunities for breast pump devices. In doing so it will reduce e-waste, contribute to a sustainable, circular economy, increase affordable healthtech access and provide an innovative framework for the development of similar repair systems for other FemTech, healthtech and medtech devices.