Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Rebecca Roose, the Director of Digital Products at Mamava about Mamava pump & nursing finder

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

Mamava's co-founders created our portable lactation suites to make sure that breastfeeding moms had clean and dignified spaces to pump at work and on the go. The app is an extension of our mission to provide spaces for women to meet their breastfeeding goals. In addition to locating and unlocking all the public Mamava locations, our app helps moms find thousands of other breast pumping and breastfeeding-friendly locations

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

A dream would be to work with Google maps and Waze, so moms can find our pods wherever they are. It would really help us reach moms before their point of need.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

How appreciative moms are to find the Mamava pods and other places to pump or breastfeed. It feels great to give new parents one less thing to worry about. The moms are so supportive of the other moms and of us. Every day they leave reviews and social messages that blow us away.

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

Our proprietary smart lock syncs to our app to unlock the Mamava pod door. The app indicates when a Mamava suite is occupied, so travelers with a tight connection can decide to go to another concourse or see how long the pod has been occupied and wait.

Being on the go with or without your baby can be hard. Our app features digital "Words of Support" so moms can leave each other notes of encouragement. It's really important to know you're not alone doing this hard work.

Sometimes it's hard to get the milk flowing, so we've added Sounds for Letdown that include a guided pumping meditation and other soundtracks designed to help moms.

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

We're in awe of our mom community and the many locations, photos and reviews they're adding to the app every day. It truly does take a village and our moms are making sure to pay it forward by supporting the moms who come after them.

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

We're big fans of Waze, Airbnb, and Yelp—all apps that empower their users. We love data and are constantly refining and improving the app.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

Spend more time than you think on user testing before development so you don't have to go back and touch code multiple times!

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

Our users are iPhone and Android users, so it was easy to make sure we were there for them.

How is your app different than the rest of the market? Which unique need does it fill?

Mamva is a category creator. When we started in 2013, nobody was solving the problem of providing and finding places for parents to pump or breastfeed on the go. But the fact is that 3 million babies are born each year in the US, and women make up more than 50% of the workforce. Working mothers need access to sanitary spaces to pump if they want to continue to breastfeed when they return to work (The American Academy of Pediatrics & World Health Organization recommend breastfeeding for a year for the health of the baby). The Mamava app is the best breastfeeding room location app available because we have the most robust and up-to-date list of spaces, and we never include bathrooms. We make it easy for breastfeeding parents to find lactation spaces near them and plan for upcoming travel. Users can find a Mamava breastfeeding pod and quickly unlock it directly from the app.

For more information, visit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mamava-pump-nursing-finder/id901989849?mt=8