Pariday LLC was founded by Jackie Lai, Mara Lowry, and Erin Vitus, three women who were frustrated by the lack of effective products on the market to help treat their breastfeeding pain. And three women who recognise that the best way to enjoy the adventure of motherhood is with humor, patience and products that really work!
Collaborating together, they each contributed their own unique skills, experience and know-how to create elegant solutions to some of life’s least elegant moments.
Pariday was built on the foundations of cooperation, collaboration and community, an organization dedicated to helping women through the challenging parts of motherhood no one tells you about. With the new mother’s needs and emotional state in mind, Pariday’s range of products have been extensively tested by women who demand better.
Fun fact: the name Pariday was inspired by the Latin term Paridae, which refers to a family of small songbirds commonly referred to as “titmouse birds”! These cute little birds are cooperative breeders and the whole community cares for and raises chicks together.
Jackie is an expert in product design and manufacturing. A structural engineer by trade, Jackie has broad experience spanning the entire product design process from concept to manufacturing.
Jackie’s driving force is to help people, and she is a certified yoga instructor specializing in Prenatal Yoga and therapeutics. After having her first baby, she realized there was another way she could serve others – by offering better solutions to the genuine issues faced by new moms.
Jackie has an engineering degree from Harvey Mudd College and a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from Stanford. Her roles before Pariday involved product design and manufacturing for General Motors in Pontiac, Michigan, Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab in Palo Alto, and product design firm D2M.
Mara has been a consultant, project manager, and marketer at a variety of companies, but still finds motherhood her most challenging role. Most recently, Mara was a brand manager at Nestle Dreyer's Ice Cream working on the Haagen-Dazs brand, so she can attest to the following: Pariday TendHer Pillows work even better to alleviate breastfeeding pain than a carton of ice cream. And they are much more discreet when tucked in your bra. But they don't taste as good, even though the ingredients are equally safe.
"As a mom, myself, there are so many products that I want that I can't find on the market,” says Mara. “Now, I get to work on making them so other moms don't have to feel the same frustration!"
After a decade of designing and perfecting everything from ophthalmic implants to nuclear submarines, Erin was horrified by the “put a cabbage leaf on it” advice she got from lactation experts, in regards to stopping lactation.
“I mean really, a cabbage leaf, that is all you got?” says Erin. “Do I just walk around holding it in place, or lie on the couch like I’m getting a facial – when should I schedule that, let me see… And frozen peas – we have been putting in artificial hearts for 40 years and all you have to offer me is frozen peas?”
We live in a time and place where you are free to open up a lemonade stand when life hands you lemons. And that is exactly what Erins hopes to do, using her difficult experiences to inspire her to create better solutions for other mothers.
Pariday is a certified women-owned business and so is their primary manufacturer and fulfilment company. Their FDA-registered manufacturing facilities are located in the heartland of the US.
Pariday still operates under the philosophy of honest pay for honest work and they have a small, close-knit group of workers who are like family. They value respect and integrity in their working relationships both within the organization and without.
Pariday works to support and give back to the local and global community wherever they can. They have made donations to the Fistula Foundation to help treat obstetric fistulas in women who otherwise wouldn’t have access to this life-changing treatment.
They also support the Great Latch On to promote breastfeeding awareness and they have partnered with hospitals to provide products for low income community baby showers.
So whether you’re looking for reusable ice packs for tender breasts or a stretched out lower region, check out the TendHer cooling pads by Pariday.
