Functional, functional, functional – Mariela Wilhelm cannot say it enough but she just likes inventing products that have more than one purpose.
The owner of Uchi Ltd., walks through her St. Albert home-based business, picking through wardrobes and hangers, and showing off colourful ponchos, baby wraps and carriers.
Specializing in clothes created for mothers of newborn babies, her latest creation – the Uchi neonatal kangaroo care wrap – is specially designed to hold premature newborns safe in place at the mother’s chest. The wrap also covers the entire upper body and protects the woman’s privacy while the baby feeds or sleeps.
“I think moms look for value and something that allows you to do different things with it,” she says.
“This is for premature babies and for newborn babies. You can wear it comfortably but at about 22 pounds it starts getting a little uncomfortable.”
A Chilean-native, Wilhelm loves colours, fabrics and designs from South America, Africa or Asia. She also likes her products to be durable, carry lots of weight (mostly babies but also large squash), and look fashionable.
The kangaroo wrap straps around the naked upper body, covers the shoulders and the back, and hides the bare chest of the mother whether she carries the baby or not.
It differs from other carrier systems in having openings on the sides of the fabric. They allow for easy access for breast pumps, cables or monitors attached to the baby. The wrap can be worn in four different ways and is a one-size-fits-all design so daddy can use it too, Wilhelm says.
“I don’t make them in bright pink. They come in neutral colours and the nice thing is that you don’t have to worry about stocking different sizes,” Wilhelm says.
“You can wear it to the hospital, directly on the skin and then just open it and put the baby in and you don’t have to worry about the baby sliding off.”
Kangaroo Mother Care is a method of care for premature and newborn babies that requires skin-to-skin contact and should ideally start from birth and largely replace the use of incubators. The method was created by Dr. Nils Bergman, a public health physician in South Africa, who promotes and researches skin-to-skin contact between mother and child.
Having premature babies and newborns lay on the mother’s chest helps the baby’s brain development, keeps them warm and gives comfort, Wilhelm says.
The method is popular in countries such as Sweden and Germany. But mothers there are also less fuzzy about breastfeeding in public, she says. In North America, she says, mothers need to feel comfortable when stuck in a hospital room with their baby on their bare chest and little more than a privacy screen protecting them.
“The natural habitat for a newborn baby is the mother’s chest. Why? Because it regulates everything,” Wilhelm says.
“It even controls blood sugar because it reduces the stress level. So the baby does a lot better with temperature control, heart rate, respiration.”
Wilhelm says she brought some of her products to a trade show at the Misericordia Hospital in November 2012, when a couple of nurses approached her about creating a neonatal wrap that holds the baby safe in place and covers the body of the mother.
Four days later she presented her design to the head nurse.
“She looked at me and she said can you get this made overseas and how fast,” she says.
“So I took her literally and I thought I am going on vacation in January to Cancun and I used part of my holiday to just organizing that and getting (production) set up.”
Invention runs in family
Wilhelm learned her craft from her mother, a Chilean ballerina who started sewing dance outfits when she was only nine years old. Her father was also an inventor who, among other things, created a baby carrier from leather and canvas fabric.
A former model and nurse, she started her first home-based business during a maternity leave for her fourth and last baby in 2007, selling breast pumps. Four years later, she was asked to create a nursing cover that protected her clients while breastfeeding in public.
Uchi Ltd. was born and true to her South American heritage, Wilhelm designed a line of colourful ponchos that are fashionable and practical.
“(The mothers) liked the fact that they were so versatile, you can wear them as a scarf, as a skirt, you can wear it elegantly,” she says.
“They are not just for moms who are expecting babies. I would say most of my clients who buy them now use them for travels because they are so multifunctional.”
Not lazy about getting her product on the market, Wilhelm is quick to give out business cards, sends her kangaroo care wraps to hospitals and nurses across North America and uses a large, four-and-a-half pound squash to prove the durability of her products.
While most of them are still sold from home, she is now also shipping them abroad and sells online. Production takes places in Cancun, Mexico but is soon moving to a larger facility in Mexico City, she says.
Besides the covers, ponchos and wraps, Wilhelm also designed regular baby carriers, based on African and Asian models, as well as a special fabric cover for breastfeeding mothers. A strap with two clasps holds the fabric around the mother’s neck, and a thin boning keeps it from collapsing on the baby.
Turning the fabric in her hands, she enthusiastically explains that you can also use it as a scarf, attach things to the stroller with the clasps or use them to hold a bib on the baby.
“And when you are done with it you can just make a nice pillow out of it,” she laughs.
