When the One-Child generation meets Three-Child policy...

The current main force of potential childbearing were mostly born in the 1990s, a period of time when the Only-Child Policy was strictly executed. The policy has complicated impacts, but one major positive effect was that generally girls were guaranteed more resources. Since they became the only child in their family, they were expected to make a career “like a son”. Therefore, when they grew up, they confusingly found that all that were expected for them became marriage and motherhood, whose hinderance to their career was deliberately neglected.

Trend analysis: Growing awareness of motherhood penalty

Exhausted new mom struggling with the transition of motherhood roles

Post-partum period tend to be more painful

What does one have to experience to become a mom? Based on insights from digital ethnography, I sorted out a detailed maternity experience map of the complicated and trivial maternity journey from making pregnancy plans to end of post-partum period.

The post-partum period is much painful. Before giving birth, despite the inconvenience and physical reactions, anticipation for the baby can give mom power and happiness. However, after giving birth, she has to face the brutal reality. The real challenges of mothering, however common, are difficult to learn without experiencing. When brutally facing all these challenges on their own, they can develop severe existential anxiety about motherhood.

To reveal the innate pattern of the pain points, I conducted systematic cluster analysis. The relatedness between each point was determined on a 1-5 scale. The data was analyzed on SPSS, and the results was visualized through Bertifier matrix and dendrogram.

Group 1 was general physical and social pains that covered too many things without a clear focus. Group 3 focused on breastfeeding challenges, the direct, embodied experience of moms and a direct cause of Group 2, overburden & mental suffer centered on motherhood penalty systematic social problem. Therefore, the breastfeeding challenges in Group 3 became the primary focus.

Breast engorgement: Abundant medical solutions v.s. Limited market choices

Despite the abundant solutions that were recorded in medical studies, current market choices were limited. Breast pumps, the most popular choice, are not targeting at breast pains, only serving as an alternative. Cold packages need to be prepared for hours in the refrigerator, and it's highly likely that it is not ready when you need to use it. Professional lactation service can be effective but expensive, requiring reservation in advance.

In the initial prototyping stage, my primary focus was on achieving a comfortable form. I used various discarded shipping boxes to iterate on the form, which was a cost-effective way for trial and error, and environmental-friendly at the same time.

The product would contain two parts, a petal part and stamen part. The petals can fit breasts of different sizes and shapes through the axis connected to the main body. The stamen can protect the fragile nipple from friction with fabrics while collecting the leaked milk to keep breasts.

Based on the cardboard models, I iterated on form of the single-sided product in Rhino, simplifying the petal part and elaborating on the stamen part. I rendered it in Keyshot and 3D printed it. The material of petal part would be frosted Silica Gel with shore hardness at 50 in the color of light orange pink, and the stamen part would be frosted white Silica Gel with shore hardness at 35.

Contactless gesture interaction through Infrared Sensors

To achieve pain relief anywhere and anytime, contactless gesture interaction would be a good choice. It allows immediate control to alleviate discomfort, ensuring privacy and avoiding awkwardness.

Since the final product form is a wearable device, camera-based gesture recognition are not suitable due to privacy concerns. Gesture interaction supported by radar waves, like Project Soli by Google, is an attractive choice, but there is no access to the chip. Therefore, infrared sensors like APDS-9960, which is cheap, effective, and available on Arduino, becomes the final choice.

Care, and make an impact to the world

At the very beginning, I had many hesitations and thoughts. I didn't know if maternity experience was a good topic for me; I was too young to have relevant experiences and I might not choose to have children in the future.

But in the process, I began feeling proud for choosing this topic. Maternity is one of the commonest experience for people, yet it was so hard, so painful, so prevalent yet so underdiscussed. We praise its greatness for centuries while deliberately keeping silent about the prices. Motherhood should not be a penalty, and I'm glad I had the chance to explore the possibilities to make a difference.

Cross-disciplinary methods bring new perspectives

For this project, I adopted methods that were uncommon in UX design. Yet borrowing a perspective from other disciplines brought new perspectives to gain in-depth insights. On selection of methodology, it's good to keep an open mind to diverse methodologies, and choose the one that suits your research goal most.