In the News

When Yummy Mummy founder Amanda Cole first started breastfeeding her now 5-year-old daughter, she ran into a few roadblocks. The products and supplies that she needed were scattered from store to store and across various websites, and she felt she didn’t have the support she needed. Getting acclimated with the complex choreography of baby feeding was a stressful experience for the first-time mom; so stressful, in fact, that she broke down in tears one day after realizing she purchased the wrong type of breast pump.

“My whole experience with getting breastfeeding products was so difficult. I thought, ‘Breastfeeding is hard enough. There has to be an easier way,’” remembers Cole, who also nursed her second child.

Cole made it her mission to help other breastfeeding mothers like herself and opened Yummy Mummy on the Upper East Side in May of 2009. With clear, user-friendly displays, knowledgeable staff members, and a welcoming environment, the boutique is dedicated to making breastfeeding a positive experience for women.

“There are oftentimes unexpected hurdles along the way,” Cole says. “And we’re just there to help and not judge—and to be support for you.”

Cole likes to refer to the store as a “one-stop shop” that has everything new or expectant moms need for breastfeeding, all conveniently located in one place. While about 80% of the products are geared toward breastfeeding moms—including breast pumps, nursing pillows, and nursing bras—Yummy Mummy offers items to suit just about any new mom’s needs, such as bottles, postpartum care products, and maternity clothing.

But you won’t find rattles or playmats on the shelves.

“A lot of the time I’ll get manufacturers who come and pitch different baby products,” Cole says. “[But] we try to stay true to it being all about mom.”

A great breastfeeding experience is about more than just the right supplies, of course. Having support and encouragement is just as important. In addition to providing all of the gear and equipment that moms need for breastfeeding, Yummy Mummy also offers various types of classes. Some of the more popular ones are Childbirth Preparation, Baby Safety & CPR, and Doula Speed Dating, in which expectant women meet five to ten doulas in one session, making the search for a labor coach relatively quick and easy.

The store’s most well-attended class, however, is the obvious choice: “A lot of moms have met their closest friends at our Breastfeeding Support Group,” Cole says. “They come here; their babies are the exact [same] age. They bond, they see each other weekly, and then they leave and go for lunch. I think some really nice friendships have formed.”

Although the store opened during the recession, the business has been steadily growing over the past four years. One recent boon for business has been the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law last summer. The ACA requires that health insurance plans cover women’s preventative services, which includes breast pumps, breast pump supplies, counseling, and support. In fact, Yummy Mummy recently opened a call center—also on the Upper East Side—where they receive orders and ship breast pumps across the country every day.

“We’ve been working closely with different insurance plans to provide breast pumps to moms all over the country,” Cole says. By partnering with various companies, Yummy Mummy has made pumps more easily accessible through Aetna Health Insurance, Blue Shield – CA, Cigna, EmblemHealth (GHI and HIP), Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana, Lifewise, POMCO Group, and Premera Blue Cross—with plans to further expand in the near future.

While she spends a lot of time finding new and helpful products for moms, Cole says her favorite part of her job is still working with her clientele. “We have the best customers,” she says. “They’re so appreciative of all the services and products that we offer, and that makes us feel really good.”

Having eventually achieved breastfeeding bliss with both of her own children, Cole knows how important it is for a new mother to be supported through such a delicate choice. To that end, Cole says that Yummy Mummy’s focus always remains on the individual: the mom who needs some advice on what kind of breast pump to buy or how she can get her newborn to feed more efficiently.

“My biggest priority is just maintaining the same level of customer service that we’ve always had,” she adds. “I think that’s really what defines us.”

Bloomberg BusinessWeek
By Patricia Clark
2013 August 26

Since January, the Affordable Care Act has required insurers to cover breast pumps at no cost to new moms. That makes sense, given the law’s focus on preventive medicine. A 2010 article in the journal Pediatrics estimated that if 90 percent of U.S. moms were to breast-feed their infants exclusively for the first six months, it would save $13 billion a year in health-care costs.

The new law might seem like a bonanza for the breast pump trade, pumping millions to manufacturers and retailers. But it requires insurers only to cover pumps—high-end models cost $400 or more—purchased through durable medical equipment suppliers (DMEs). Those are companies eligible to be reimbursed by government and private insurance for certain kinds of medical equipment, usually for long-term use at home. The accreditation process is complex; the market is big: Retail spending for durable medical equipment was $38.9 billion (PDF) in 2011, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Before the law took effect, most DMEs didn’t offer breast pumps, and most stores that sold pumps weren’t accredited as DMEs, says Amanda Cole, who launched the Yummy Mummy on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 2009 to cater to nursing moms. After she learned about the provision, Cole applied for accreditation as a DME and started courting insurers. “I thought my business was in jeopardy,” she says. “Who’s going to buy a pump when they can get it for free?”

Since the beginning of this year, when the breast pump benefit kicked in, Cole has increased her head count to 17 workers and rented space for a call center, so she could sell nationwide. The strategy is working: Cole, whose company became a DME last year, says she’s selling hundreds of breast pumps a week. “A lot of the DMEs are focused on the elderly and the sick,” she says. “They sell things like oxygen tanks and hospital beds. All we do is breast pumps, and that’s been a great proposition.”

The implementation of the benefit hasn’t been without hitches. Joy Kosak already had a breastfeeding business—she’s the cofounder of a Sacramento (Calif.)-based company called Simple Wishes, which sells hands-free pumping bras—when the new benefit took effect. She launched a new business called Pumping Essentials in November with two employees, waded through the red tape required to open a DME, and teamed up with her first insurer in April. She now has seven workers and says she’s selling about 300 breast pumps a month.

“The language is so vague that it’s being interpreted many different ways by providers,” Kosak says. That means some insurers will only pay for rental or manual pumps. Others have said that it takes weeks to fill out required paperwork, and some insurers have told women that pumps are not covered at all, according to a policy paper published last month by the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee.

Supply has also been a problem. Medela, a major supplier of breast pumps to U.S. hospitals, has increased production of its consumer models by 50 percent to meet demand. That isn’t enough to stop Kosak from worrying about future shortages. Currently, she says, she pre-orders five months worth of inventory to reduce the risk of running out of stock.

Part of the problem is that many DMEs didn’t offer breast pumps until this year, which means they lack historical data to forecast demand, says Rachel Mennell, a spokeswoman for Medela: “After the first year, I think everyone will be able to do a better job forecasting.”

Originally published at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-26/obamacare-encourages-baby-boutiques-to-bet-on-breast-pumps

Yummy Mummy featured on CNN.

Moms Only: New and expectant moms on the Upper East Side now have a shop just for them. This month, New York City mom and lactation educator Amanda Cole is opening Yummy Mummy, a breastfeeding emporium selling all the essentials, including breast pumps and extra parts, nursing tops and bras, nursing pads, and cover-ups, as well as more unusual items like post-cesarean panties and fashionable hospital gowns. The store will also host classes and support groups led by lactation consultants.

See a PDF of the item as it appeared on page 22 of the May 2009 issue

Pumped for Yummy Mummy

One stop shop for breastfeeding moms

By Sarah Liston

M is for May and mammaries! This month, the first and only breastfeeding store on the Upper East Side opens its doors. Its name should make you giggle: Yummy Mummy. This self-described one stop shop for the breastfeeding mom, at 1201 Lexington Ave. between 81st and 82nd, will have everything that nursing moms need to be their very best at breastfeeding: nursing bras, breast pumps, pads, DVDs, reference books and even weekly classes, special seminars and breastfeeding support groups.

See the complete item on the Our Town website

When Breast Is Best

Pumping and dumping, latching, proper positioning—you're learning all the techniques, but breastfeeding is not going so swimmingly. Stop by Yummy Mummy, a just-opened uptown boutique that focuses on everything related to breastfeeding. This full-service, one-stop-shop for new and expectant parents focuses on nursing products and resources, as well as classes on lactation-related topics taught by Certified Lactation Consultants. From nursing bras and pads to books and DVDs, the specialty store run by an UES native and mother is all about making the breastfeeding experience a little easier.

For more, see the UrbanBaby New York news item.

BFF (Breast Friends Forever)

Yummy Mummy Opens You have it in your head how this whole bundle of joy thing plays out. After an easy-breezy pregnancy, your wee one takes to the breast instantaneously, protecting herself from allergies, while sucking off all your baby weight.

Riiigghht.

More than likely, you'll encounter a few bumps (and blisters) on the way to breast-feeding bliss.

Yummy Mummy, the Upper East Side's new one-stop shop for all things nursing, has the supplies and support you need to make the whole lactation experience as stress free and rewarding as possible. With everything from nursing bras and pads to pumps and helpful DVDs, your transition from hospital to home will be a cinch. In addition, Yummy Mummy offers classes and groups where even your weirdest questions will be answered. So boob time won't suck.

See the entire item on the Daily Candy website.

Recently Opened

It takes a kind and patient soul to explain to a brand-new dad the mechanics of breast pumps, and Amanda Cole, owner of Yummy Mummy, has it down pat. "They're so sweet when they come in," she says, as she turns to a dazed but beaming father and compares the pump he's eyeing to a Mercedes-Benz. Cole, a lifelong Upper East Sider, decided to launch the business this past spring, when her own daughter was just a few months old. "I had a hard time getting the hang of nursing, and I realized the neighborhood needed a place like this," she says.

Faster than you can say "clogged milk ducts," Yummy Mummy, with its soothing pale-yellow walls and user-friendly displays, was open. The store sells everything a nursing mom could ever need—shields, balms and pillows as well as chic outfits from Boob and Majamas—and hosts weekly support groups and classes. And if you choose not to nurse, you're just as welcome: An entire wall is devoted to bottles.

1201 Lexington Ave between 81st and 82nd Sts (212-879-8669, yummymummystore.com)

Time Out New York Kids / Issue 47 : Sep 1-30, 2009

Photograph: Caroline Voagen Nelson

Read more: http://newyorkkids.timeout.com/articles/shopping/77713/yummy-mummy-profile

By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS

WHEN Jessica Jochim returned to work after her three-month maternity leave, she was the envy of her co-workers at Babies "R" Us. Mrs. Jochim, who had gained 40 pounds carrying her first child, steadily slimmed until she was a size 4 again. Yet, exercise was a pre-baby relic. She wasn't dieting, either. In fact, every two hours, she snacked as if on cue.

What was her secret? Breast-feeding her newborn James on demand, and using a breast pump to take milk home to him.

"All the ladies at work started joking they were going to go in back and pump so they could start losing weight like I was," said Mrs. Jochim, a mother of three from Vancouver, Wash. "I had a baby suckling 600 calories a day out of me."

That breast-feeding gives mothers an edge shedding baby weight has long been suspected. But lately, a parade of celebrities has attributed their postpartum slimming to nursing, bringing this age-old topic back into the spotlight. Adding to the conversation is a large study that suggests that weight loss through breast-feeding is not a myth.

Earlier this year, Rebecca Romijn, who wore a shrink-wrapped outfit in "X-Men," called breast-feeding her new twins "the very best diet I've been on." After Angelina Jolie posed for the November 2008 cover of W magazine nursing one of her twins, she said that it had helped her regain her figure. (That cover made her an icon among breast-feeding advocates and inspired a bronze statue of a nude Ms. Jolie double-nursing her newborns that was exhibited in London last month.)

These days, more than ever, a mother is expected to bounce back from pregnancy and be a "yummy mummy" in no time. Skin-care lines like Mama Mio target mothers with firming creams like Boob Tube. Nursing mothers can buy form-fitting tops at <strong>YummyMummyStore.com</strong> so they can flaunt their shape as they push their Bugaboo.

Is it any wonder that some new mothers are quietly thrilled at the calorie cushion that breast-feeding provides? "Nobody wants to admit they are doing it for themselves, or 'I'm doing it to help myself look hot again,'" said Jesse Comer, from Portland, Ore., whose main motivation to breast-feed was her baby's health. "It;s tough to admit to other people that everything isn't about the baby." But Ms. Comer, like many mothers interviewed for this article, "felt like until the weight was off, I wouldn't feel myself."

In our CBS's show, "Eye on Parenting," CNET's Molly Wood talks with breastfeeding experts—including Yummy Mummy's Amanda Cole—about how to make the experience smoother for both mother and child.

See more at the CBS News Website