Keep a fragile newborn alive
The first two years carry the highest mortality risk of any age until old age; parents cannot assess it themselves.
Where Safety meets Infancy. The avoidance of injury, loss, theft and predation. Safety is the constant most likely to be solved by pooling: insurance, policing, regulation, and public health all work by spreading a risk that no individual can carry. It produces two kinds of business — those that prevent har…
10 frictions
Cannot tell what is wrong with a non-verbal baby
Fever at 2 a.m. and no way to ask the patient.
2 solutions built for it
Nurse lines and pediatric telehealth and Parenting books, apps, and forums.
The mother's body and mind must recover from birth
Postpartum haemorrhage, depression, and pelvic-floor injury are common and under-treated; the baby's arrival hides the mother's recovery.
3 solutions built for it
Postpartum care and maternal mental health, Pelvic-floor physical therapy and Therapy and counselling.
A manufactured product replaces a biological one
Created by formula: contamination or shortage is now life-threatening.
1 solutions built for it
The infant does not sleep, so neither do the parents
Chronic sleep loss degrades every other decision in this phase.
3 solutions built for it
Cribs, bassinets, swaddles, and sleep aids, Sleep training consultants and Baby monitors.
Manage waste many times a day for two years
Unavoidable, frequent, and entirely delegable to a product.
2 solutions built for it
Billions of non-degrading diapers
Created by disposables: convenience for the parent, landfill for everyone.
1 solutions built for it
Someone must watch the infant every hour, but someone must also earn
The central economic friction of infancy: care and income compete for the same hours.
3 solutions built for it
Parental leave, Daycare and childcare centres and Nannies and au pairs.
Pooled infants share every infection
Created by group care: the sick-day problem.
2 solutions built for it
Move an infant through a world built for adults
Stairs, cars, shops, planes — none of it designed for a carried person.