Articles
columbia gorge magazine - MOTHERS OF INVENTION
by david sword
Included in Plato's works of philosophy is the statement "necessity is the mother of invention." Generations of parents have learned that keeping a newborn baby tightly wrapped in a blanket provides the child a warm and comfortable environment. Combined with gentle rocking or swaying, the swaddling helps a newborn feel safe and relaxed. When newborns are relaxed,
"Knowing that we had the potential to go nationwide-instantly-was very exciting." -KIM STOLTE
Swaddling a newborn is effective, but the technique requires practice and patience. While teaching a childbirth-education class at Hood River Hospital, registered nurse Kim Stolte found herself thinking that there must be an easier way. She looked around the room and said, "We need to design an easier swaddling blanket." A few expectant mothers expressed interest immediately. Having been taught to sew by her mother, Stolte combined her years of research and experience in raising her own three children with the aid of members of the class, and the SwaddleKeeper was born.
Although swaddling infants can be traced back beyond the ancient Greeks, there has been little development in the comforting technique. Stolte and her crew used a simple receiving-type blanket as the template, and with a few "baby-specific" tweaks, including a sewn-in head cradle and a Velcro closure, the SwaddleKeeper, or "SK," as the production team calls it, immediately received rave reviews. The SK is currently sold via its website, in more than 40 retail stores around the country, and in hospital gift shops and specialty baby stores; Stolte has received positive feedback from parents, childbirth educators, doctors and midwives.
Stolte knew that even the most needed product in the world would not sell itself. "Most of the retail stores started carrying SKs after being directly approached by me, or during trade shows," she says. "In Hood River, we sell exclusively at Small Planet Trading, which carries 'fair trade' products from around the world."
The SwaddleKeeper is considered a fair-trade item because it is manufactured locally, and Stolte's business pays a fair wage. Instead of hiring a crew of professional seamstresses, she chose to work with members of another sorority. Affectionately called "Production Moms," Stolte says that most of her production team started as friends she met during the course of living and working in Hood River.
"The Production Moms work to make extra income that supports them living in the Gorge," says Stolte. "Most of them have other jobs or are staying at home with their babies, but all of them work knowing that they have the flexibility to work around their family, which makes parenting that much easier."
In the beginning of the business venture, Stolte was keen on keeping things simple. "I resisted for a very long time to even add more than a few different colors and fabric types," she says. However, the success of her product and a barrage of customer requests led her to expand the offerings-though she has yet to develop any other products, SKs are now available in more than 20 fabric colors and types, including organic cotton. Custom embroidery was the next addition: "The most interesting request (so far) was for ‘GO DUCKS’ to be embroidered for some diehard University of Oregon fans."
This responsiveness has paid off-in 2006, SwaddleKeeper was given an iParenting Media award, determined by independent parent-reviewers who use standardized guidelines to evaluate products for children.
"The iParenting Media award really gave the company a boost in confidence," says Stolte. "Having them choose us in the Best Accessory Product category is quite an honor."
With newly found confidence in the product, Stolte and two Production Moms, Autumn Woods and Holly Boardman, hit the road in March 2007 in an attempt to get the product in front of an American icon-Oprah Winfrey. They joined a contest called "The Next Big Idea," which Oprah developed in conjunction with cable shopping network QVC for inventers who are mothers. While SwaddleKeeper did not make the final cut, the experience was still valuable.
"Knowing that we had the potential to go nationwideinstantly-was very exciting; it would have been the quick way to the top," says Stolte. "The Oprah experience really pushed the company to evaluate the packaging and presentation of the product."
Stolte says that she is proud of having made company decisions that are based on the "waste not, want not" maxim, "from the types of paper that we print on and packaging choices, to reusing and donating fabric scraps and using organic cotton fabric." She will continue to resist the siren's call of cheap, imported products: "The amount of news about products made overseas, with questionable regulations on manufacturing, makes me proud and thankful that we don't manufacture in China or Taiwan. … I love seeing the children of the moms that sew for me."
Jonathan Swift, 18th-century author of Gulliver's Travels, once noted that "discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." Inventors and entrepreneurs like Kim Stolte use this innate sense to develop products like the SwaddleKeeper, helping to improve the lives of those around them.
Swaddle, Coddle and Model Good Parenting
By Keri Brenner
Hood River, Oregon — Registered nurse Kim Stolte wants everyone's newborn to sleep longer and make parenting a little bit easier.
As a veteran teacher of childbirth classes, she figured out an easy way to improve the odds: a newborn swaddling blanket that stays closed, keeps babies secure, supports their heads and lets parents get more hours of sleep.
Her invention, the velcro-closure "Swaddlekeeper" blanket, is the winner of an iParenting Media Award for being one of the best new products of 2007.
"Newborns are often easily awakened because they miss the security of being inside the womb," says Stolte, who was featured on several Portland television news programs. "One way to replicate the security of the womb is to keep them tightly swaddled."
Newspaper articles from Oregon, Alabama & Pennsylvania quote the many benefits of the Swaddlekeeper, one being that it keeps newborns in the "back to sleep" position recommended to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
The Swaddlekeeper was designed by Stolte, a labor and delivery nurse at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital. While teaching parents how to swaddle with a traditional blanket in childbirth class, she knew there had to be an easier way for parents.
"The goal for the Swaddlekeeper is to make swaddling simple," Stolte said. "There is no complicated folding, tucking, wrapping or huge quantities of fabric to arrange,” she said.
With all the many essential parenting tasks during the first few weeks home with a new baby — feeding, bathing, diapering, combined with less sleep for the parents — "it's no wonder that new parents are often overwhelmed with trying to learn the complexities of perfect swaddling," Stolte added.
In addition, the product is designed so that a newborn wrapped in a Swaddlekeeper has a built-in head support that makes holding the baby easy for parents, siblings and grandparents.
Other unique features include the V-shaped leg opening, designed to allow the newborn's legs to kick and stretch for proper hip and leg development. Parents have since pointed out that they like the leg opening because it allows for for easier diaper changes while the arms are still swaddled.
Parents Rachel and Troy of Southington, Conn., said they tried out a lot of swaddling products for their new twins, Matthew and Madeline, but "none seemed to work for our babies," Rachel says.
"We received the Swaddlekeeper as a gift, and we immediately saw a difference in how our babies slept," she adds. "Now that they are 3 months old, we still use the Swaddlekeeper, and they continue to be solid sleepers, and much happier babies during the day."
Other customers say the head support makes their newborns easy "packages" for family members to hold and not worry about giving enough support. "During the first few weeks, our son was a bit fussy while learning to breastfeed," said parents Jon and Jade of Hood River. "The Swaddlekeeper blanket made us feel like we could handle him with more confidence."
Stolte notes that the Swaddlekeeper is typically used over the top of a baby's receiving blanket. The Swaddlekeeper is made from a variety of fabrics with the head support being 100 percent organic quilters' batting and fits babies up to 20 pounds. The blanket is all one-piece and is machine washable and made in the USA.
Stolte offers many tips for helping newborns become solid sleepers on her website, www.swaddlekeeper.com. For example, if your baby exhibits any signs of being tired, such as yawning, wiggling or making fists, immediately swaddle the baby and put him or her to bed.
"The quicker your baby is put into bed after showing a tired sign, the quicker she will settle," Stolte says. "An over-tired baby will cry harder and take much longer to settle down."
Another customer, Kristen of Hood River, said her daughter Kate had been waking up every two to four hours during the night.
"The first night with the Swaddlekeeper she slept nine hours straight through," she said. "We love the Swaddlekeeper – thank you!"