From Swaddles to Solutions: Liz Hilton’s Journey in Postpartum Innovation

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Limited time offer. Hi. I am Lucinda Coza, and this is How I Ally. Welcome to my guest. Would you please introduce yourself and give a little backstory, if you don't mind?
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My name is Liz Hilton. I'm a mother, inventor, and entrepreneur. So before I became a mother in August of 2017, I had founded a company called Knit It, which is a soft good additive manufacturing company.
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I'm a 3D knit programmer by trade. I program 3D knit solutions on a computer, and then I knit it seamlessly in one piece on CNC knitting equipment. Um, and you know, I started out basically doing this in my garage.
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Uh, and then, you know, wasn't very successful. Um, and then y- you know that saying, um, necessity is the mother of invention? I was thinking about that.
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That is like the living, breathing example of that because I became a mother, and of course, the number one problem you have when you become a mom is sleep.
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And so I had a little Houdini baby who would escape every swaddle. A- and you've heard a lot of entrepreneurs, mompreneurs, i- if you will, who've started swaddle companies.
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But for me, because I was a 3D knit engineer designing 3D knit solutions for office furniture companies, and oven gaskets, and shoe uppers, and all sorts of things, I, I had the tools at my fingertips to solve this problem in a whole new way.
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I thought if I could invent a swaddle solution that could hug my baby, that could help calm his central nervous system, activate his vagus nerve, and increase his proprioception while also allowing freedom of movement to experience active sleep and Moro reflex, I, I knew I'd have something.
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And so I prototyped it. I put it on my baby, and I remember putting him to sleep in the crib that night. He was, like, two months old. I go to bed. I wake up in a pa- panic.
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My husband and I both wake up realizing we slept through the night for the first time since we got home from the hospital. And we run to the crib, make sure he's okay, and he's sleeping there peacefully.
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And my husband grabs my arm, and he's like, "You're gonna sell a million of these." And it's f- I didn't, I was not as excited. In that moment, I realized this is gonna be a lot of work. Yeah.
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Like, I knew I had something, and this was going to take years of all my energy and focus, and it did. Like, it took... While I was growing a family, I also had-- Like, my business wasn't doing well.
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I had to go get a W2 job, you know, to pay bills, and I, I still pursued Swaddleini by going to, um, baby shows all over the country, meeting moms, and, and it really-- Like, Swaddleini is what it is today
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because of the feedback from other moms, and I love that. It's every new product we come out with is because moms asked for it or dads asked for it, like the caregivers.
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So I, I love being so connected to them and so connected to the medical community. Um, so we've done a lot with, um, neonatal abstinence syndrome babies.
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We've donated to babies who are born addicted to fentanyl, and our, our products are engineered with hug technology, which helps with the tremors, helps with exacerbated Moro reflex, which these NAS babies suffer from.
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And then it a- it is also, um, uh, doctors and nurses have used it in NICUs for babies with respiratory problems because they have trouble calming down to get the rest they need, and our product helps with that.
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So it's, it's been a wild ride. It, it didn't take off until, um, January 7th, 2021, and I had a viral TikTok. In one day, I had a million views,
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341 orders from all over the world, and zero inventory, and one machine in my garage, two kids, and a full-time job.
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So I hired, like, the daughter of my mom's friend from Ch- Chen [chuckles] and, uh, who still works for me, by the way. She's amazing. She's now a technician and- Wow... programmer. Yeah.
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Um, a- anyway, um, it, it, yeah, the rest is history. So now I have a, a 9,000 square foot facility, 17 machines, and 11 employees. Oh my gosh. That is so incredible. It's just such a success story. It is.
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It's the American dream, and I love that it's all about manufacturing here, and I'm-- Like the, the lady I mentioned who helped me when I first went viral, who's still working for me, she's going to get a state certification for being a knit technician and honing all those skills.
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And it's-- So I love that I get to invest back into the talent in my community. It's, it's amazing. I, I am, I'm ver- I, I, I don't take my, this privilege for granted. Like, I know that this is a privilege.
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And so part of understanding, wow, I've been given a, a platform on social media. I, I, I built this incredible community of new m- and expectant mothers online. What am I gonna do with this responsibility?
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And I thought about how I could best add value, and I came up with Project CHIP, which is Cultivating Health In Postpartum. It's a documentary where we are following one woman's journey- Mm-hmm...
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preparing for her postpartum. There are so many documentaries out there about the po- postpartum depression and all these jarring, shocking, uh, problems.
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There's nothing about the solution And I, I, I wanna make the first documentary about the solution. So I actually got together with Han O., who wrote The First 40 Days, which is a beautiful nutritional gui- you know it.
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Yes, I do. I got- I bought it, and I gave it- Awesome... to my husband. I was like, "Here's a gift of how to take care of me." Yeah. Well, did he use it? Did he use it? Sor- sort of. Uh, but, mm- Hard. When the real...
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Hard. Yeah, I feel like, um, y- uh, it's like a whole, you know, concept that you- Mindset shift, too. Like- Yes, yes. Yeah, about like how to really take care of a woman after she gives birth, like how to- Exactly...
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nourish her.
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Well, it's not a, Eastern and a little like West from Europe, almost every culture that's been around for more than 500 years has their own, um, the- their own way to, um, support a woman in her rest and recovery journey postpartum.
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And America being so new, um, and, and so lost, we, we have lost how to mother in our country. We need to relearn it, and we, it starts with, um, investing more in preparing for our postpartum than our birth.
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Our birth only takes a few hours. Postpartum is years. You want to plan your postpartum, especially in the first 40 days. Abs- absolutely. A- and I, I, I, I have twins. Whoa. Oh my God.
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I was so unprepared. How old are they now? They are 19 months now. Oh my gosh, so you're still in the thick of it. That's such a hard age. Ugh. Yes. I, I've been told that I'm at the hardest stage for twins.
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Yeah, yeah. I mean- It's-... for any baby, probably I know, but with twins it's double everything, so. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Did, did you, um, get plugged in with Twinversity, Nat?
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Do you know- Oh... Natali? Yes, yes. Nice. Yeah. She's a friend of mine. I know her from- Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, uh, the baby industry is so small and we all know each other.
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I've been to all the shows, so I know Nat, I know... Yeah, we every, we all, we're, it's a very incestuous industry. [laughs] We all know each other. That's amazing. It's, that's, it's an incredible community.
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Oh, she's great. Yeah, I love Nat. If you guy- have twins, you gotta check out Twinversity. Oh, yeah. I get the emails that are like- [laughs]... it's now week blah, blah, blah with your twins.
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And I'm like- Oh, well you should have her on your... Have you had her on your podcast before? I want to. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love that you're focusing on postpartum support, because women just aren't.
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And that book that you bought and gave to your husband, that, that only came out like nine years ago, Han wrote that.
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And, and, but, and it's gained in popularity in the last few years, and I really feel like it's bringing to the consciousness of the American woman, "Hey, if you don't stop and invest in yourself and prioritize your nutrition and your rest and your recovery, you, you're gonna pay for it later."
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And I think we're finally starting to understand this. Um, a- a- and I'm hoping... So my, the big question that my documentary is going to ask is, what is postpartum support? We always talk about it.
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We talk about community. I want, I want the meat and potatoes of what is it.
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So we are getting detailed and specific and, and giving people tools, um, throughout the doc on, a- and illustrating stories on what you can do to help.
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And I hope that people will take the call to action seriously and think, "Okay, if I want the village, I gotta be the village." That's, that's the, the...
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And, and that w- I didn't know that was gonna be the message of the doc, but after talking to women, this is, this is what it needs to be, and this is what we all need to hear. That's, that is the perfect sound bite.
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Thank you. But that is also so true. Um, ca- can I tell you a story- Yes... uh, that illustrates why it is so true? So I learned about The First 40 Days book from my f- my best friend, Paige.
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And Paige went through her first postpartum without a baby. She had a stillborn at 36 weeks. It was, you know, the most traumatic, horrible thing you can imagine. Yeah.
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And so her reaction to that was to really dig deep into her spiritual healing and her physical healing and what she needed, uh, from a, a spiritual level, a psychological level, and a physical level.
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So she threw herself into her nutrition, and through the teachings of The First 40 Days, she threw herself into her com- community. She ma- she
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made meals, postpartum meals, and then delivered it to the women she knew that were recovering from postpartum. She's like, "I don't have a baby to take care of, so I'm going [laughs]
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I'm gonna be there for them and I'm gonna be their village."
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And she said she received so much healing by stepping out into the world and doing this for other women who, um, y- who, who, who were, you know, doing their, their stuff with their newborn and didn't have time.
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She had the time, and that was her gift. And she said, I, I mean, it's just so beautiful, but she received so much healing from doing that.
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And, um, and, uh, for after that, but she now has, um, a healthy baby girl who's two now, and she's pregnant with her third. Wow. Um, so yeah, we're very, very happy, uh, and everything's going well.
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She's almost at the end. She's due any day now with her second. Um, but yeah, to, to go through something like that and have such a, a healthy reaction, I mean- Wow.
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A-a-and now imagine, okay, she was in an extreme situation, but what if all of us women, even before we give birth, had this attitude of, of service for one another, and showing each other love in this way?
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You know, the- because this is what we used to do. Um, and if we could get our, get, you know, it...
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I, I think what the first 40 days is doing is it's created a cultural shift, and we're starting to value these, um, small- these acts of service, of making someone a meal.
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It's becoming, uh, more mainstream, and I think that's really great. Uh, postpartum women have started making healthy boundaries with in-laws and visitation.
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Um, now of course, enforcing those boundaries is a totally different thing. But at least we're talking about it and we're setting them, you know? Um- Mm-hmm... uh, it's, a- and then teaching ourselves how, how to mother,
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how to, how to do what we need to do for ourselves first so that we can be the best caregivers for our baby. And I, I know that the American people are not ready to hear this message. A lot of them are not ready.
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Because when I make a post about a mom... So I, I, I make a lot of posts about safe sleep. I do, I do a whole scene, um, that exemplifies safe sleep practices.
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If you're a new mom and you get sleepy, you put your baby down in a safe sleep environment bassinet by your bed, and, and then you get rest. And people online will see this and go, "Why don't you just hold your baby?
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You're so lazy. Moms are so lazy on their phone all the time." And I'm like, oh my, oh my God.
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[laughs] Like, that woman needs to get the rest she needs to recover and be the best mother she can be for that baby, and, and you're on, on my page judging her for that?
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Like, people are, have lost their minds, and, um, a- and social media's never made that m- ha- it's made that very clear. Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.
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I read something today that was, um, it was like, uh, there's so much advice about how to parent, but there's n- but, but what about advice about how to take care of people doing the parenting? Mm.
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Yeah. Uh, that, that is a book that should be written. [laughs] Okay, 'cause well, one thing, some people think they're taking care of you by disciplining your child for you, and I, I really don't like that.
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Um, it's like, if I'm, I, I don't believe in policing. I believe in guiding and coaching. So if someone, like, wants to come in and discipline my ki- no, it's not okay. That's not o- okay. Yeah.
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If someone wants to come in and, and say, "This is how things should go. This is how things are going to go," then that's just not helpful at all. Yeah.
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Or if somebody wants to come into your, your room when you have a newborn and say things like, "Oh, are you, uh, are you breastfeeding?
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You're not breastfe-" Like, getting into your business like that, that's not helpful. [laughs] Mm-hmm. Uh, not helpful at all. But yeah, par- parents also need to know that perfect parenting does not exist.
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Like, so you will mess up, and you just gotta, you know, try again. Yeah. Get back up and... It's not a, it's not a job for a perfectionist. Right. [laughs] What a j- Really. Yeah.
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Um, yeah, and, and it's hard to deal with imper- you know, people are imperfect, so it's hard to deal with the imperfect comments that are made when you're a new mom and everything is triggered, and nobody gives you grace.
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Like, that, that's another thing I would love to normalize. Can we normalize giving a postpartum woman grace?
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'Cause you know, I, I have a Type A personality, and so when I'm postpartum, I am very sensitive, and I don't think I'm alone in that.
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And so I, I would love to see, okay, I might have a moment of postpartum rage, but can you, can you give me a break? Can you give me some grace there, you know? Right. I don't know.
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Like, instead of using postpartum rage, instead of using that term to, like, shame me and make me feel like I'm crazy, how about it's normal that you have a moment of postpartum rage, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
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Or just like say, "Oh, okay. Well..." The, let, let or just say nothing. Just let it brush off and then go about your day. Right. I don't know. Oh gosh, the things I wanna normalize. I mean, I...
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just imagine if, like, every woman invested as heavily into their postpartum recovery period as they did into their birth plan. I mean, the whole, our whole society would be different.
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The way we bond with our children would be different.
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And e- especially as moms, I feel like if we prioritized our rest and recovery postpartum, we'd have less resentment toward our kids, because that's where, that's where the mom guilt comes from. Ah. That's my belief.
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I'm a, I'm speaking out of turn. I'm not a psychologist, you know. But I do have four kids. You have four? Four, yeah.
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So I have, the, the baby I had that, that inspired me to make the Swaddlini is now seven, and then I also have a, a four-year-old and a two-year-old, and, um, my baby just turned one. Yeah. So you are still postpartum.
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Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, I'm still breastfeeding. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
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Yeah, and actually one, one of the things I did for a friend, um, she had a nesting party and everybody signed up, uh, to, like, do dishes one day, do laundry, bring her a meal. I signed up for bedtime routine.
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So I came over about 8:00, and she was making a bottle, and I was like, "You know, I'm breastfeeding right now. Like, would you... I could be your wet nurse." And she was like, "Oh, go for it."
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And I, I've done this for my sister's kids. Um, so I did, she went with, with her husband into their bedroom to rest. Um, their baby was only a couple months old, and I hung out with him.
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I tried to keep him awake as long as possible, changing his diaper.
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I fed him a couple times, and I think he finally went to bed around, like, 9:45 or so, and then I made sure he was still s- I obviously put him to bed in the Swadolini, and I think I creeped out, like, 10:30, and she said that he woke up at, like, 6:05 AM the next day.
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Slept through the night. I love that. So I feel like I, I, I might, uh, explore this. That I might have a new, uh, career path, you know? [laughs] Sure. Like a, like a, I mean- Like different cares night nanny.
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You know- Yeah... if I had known that that existed, I w- I, I think I would have... With twins, like- Oh... I, I would've- Oh, you didn't know about night nannies when you were postpartum? I, no.
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I mean, which, uh, I didn't know anything. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. It, yeah, so the, I'm like a cautionary tale.
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[laughs] Um- Yeah, basically a night nanny can, like, will, like, do what I did for my friend, or, um, or, or a postpartum doula type person. Yeah.
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Um, or, you know, like whenever the baby wakes up, if they're really young, like this baby was like two or three months old that I, I did the routine for.
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Um, but you, it, they'll bring the baby to you so you can nurse him and things like that. And maybe they'll bring you water, maybe they'll do some laundry or something while you're sleeping.
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Whatever you negotiate into it. Yeah. That's, that's a huge act of service. Yeah. But, but the thing is, what I did was for free.
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It was for another new mom in my community who definitely could not have afforded a postpartum doula. Right. Yeah. Right. That's the caveat there. Yeah. Well, there is, like, where was it?
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I think it was Sweden is doing a time bank system where you volunteer time to help and aid with an elderly person, and you'll be like their aide for a day, right?
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And you bank that time, so when you get old, then it's reciprocated with the next generation. And I think that is a beautiful system. Would love for it to work here, maybe for postpartum. Absolutely. Imagine. Oh my, no.
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Yeah. I mean, why- No... isn't Sweden perfect? I know. So cool. Oh, man. Wow. There, anyway, there's a lot of little solutions and big solutions, right?
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Um, but I think what my documentary is getting at is, how can you be the solution in your own way, in your own community? Right. And, um, we explore that.
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I mean, well, so the way we're doing it is we're following this one woman's journey through preparing for postpartum, living it out, and then interviewing her on, you know, what worked, what didn't.
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Um, and I'm doing this with Han, the author of The First Forty Days.
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So she, o- obvious- Han is Chinese American, and the subject of our film is Chinese American, and she really wanted to practice the ancient Chinese practice of confinement, um, when she, with her first child that she had a few years ago.
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But, um, it just, it didn't work out. Her family members were not able to be there for her through, for one reason or another, and it just, it, it was, it was a disappointing experience for her.
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And so I'm really excited we get to give this back. So I actually have a friend who owns the Village Post-Natal Recovery Center in San Francisco, 15 minutes from this woman's home. Her name's Alice Eiseman.
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And she just gave birth a few days ago, and she's checking in on Monday, and I'm flying to San Francisco on Tuesday.
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We're gonna film Wednesday, and she's, we, um, so Swadolini has sponsored this, and we're sponsoring her Chinese meals that are gonna be brought to her every day, and her family can visit.
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And I, I'm just, I'm so excited to showcase this because, uh, although people might think, "Okay, I can't afford a postpartum doula for, like, 35 to $65 an hour," in San Francisco it's, like, $65 an hour.
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Um, so if you want 24/7 care, it's out of the question. But at a post-natal recovery center like The Village, it's $800 a night, and it's 24/7 postpartum doula care. So it's, if you need a break, that's available to you.
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Um, it's, it's, uh, it's amazing. And- Yeah... could, could it be systematized? Sure. We're, I, I'm also exploring the counterpoints to that, 'cause I thought this was all fine and dandy.
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Like, how much I would've loved to go to a retreat center and just be away from my home and my responsibilities for a few days. That would've been amazing for me.
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It might not be for everyone, but it's one of the things we're exploring. Um, the other thing we're exploring is postpartum doula support in home.
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And, um, and then of course the other thing we're curious about is her, her friend circle support. So she did have a nesting party. She did have a sign-up s- sheet, and we're gonna be interviewing her friends.
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Like, what, what, h- how they want to be there f- for their friend in her postpartum period. So, um, the, 'cause the, the, the person we're doing, who's the subject of this doc, Alice, she's a giver.
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Like, she's one of those people who's always giving and giving and giving to others, but is really, really hard for her to ask for help. I think that's never going away. Women will always have trouble asking for help.
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Um, but what we can get better at is giving it, and give it, and giving it without asking. Just showing up. Just showing up and giving. Right. I, I, we could get better at that. Yeah. Just- This is delicious.
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I, I love how proactive you are. It, for lack of a better word. Well, that's the key word. I love that word, proactive. Like, I, I don't like seeing a problem. Oh, m- oh, my baby's not sleeping?
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I'm gonna engineer a swaddle for him and this. Oh, [laughs] postpartum support is absolutely non-existent? [laughs] Let's change this. Yes. Yeah. And I think the most important thing is that a new mom feels empowered
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Right? Well, and to have the words. That's one thing I learned in birth that I think could also be paralleled to postpartum.
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You know, I, I wanted to birth naturally, but I didn't have the words and the tools to communicate what I needed in the moment I needed it until I trained, retrained my brain through hypnobirth, which, life-changing.
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Honestly, if you're not pregnant, I would still read HypnoBirthing. [laughs] Wow. Uh, the ideas in that book are fantastic because it's giving you the tools you need
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mentally, and changing your mindset so that you can have the words to advocate for yourself.
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And when you're postpartum and you're under a lot of stress, you don't have the, the, um, tools ready to feel what you need to feel in the moment you need to feel it.
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So postpartum emotional distress may not hit you till six months, a year down the road if you don't prioritize yourself in the first days and weeks postpartum. It will hit you like a ton of bricks.
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That happened to me, so I know. Really? Well, my first day back from the hospital, my husband worked a 22-hour day. It was manufacturing.
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And he came home, and I lit him up, and he was like, "Liz, I took four days off for the birth." And I was like, "Two of those days were a Saturday and a Sunday."
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Six months in, we go on a vacation, and he leaves me with the baby two days into the vacation to go back to work. Yeah, I'm serious.
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And, uh, and then I get back from the vacation, and I tell him, "You quit your job or we have no more children." [laughs] And, uh, and he quit his job. And he actually got a job making...
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It, he was six months unemployed. It was tough, and I had to get a real job, [laughs] a much higher paying j- I wasn't really making much money, so I had to get a job.
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Uh, he got a job making a third less than what he was used to, which, for a man who has his whole identity wrapped up in that, it's amazing what my husband did for his family.
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And, uh, it all worked out 'cause he has s- quit that job, and now we work together. So [laughs] yeah. That's incredible. It's a very happy story. But it, and you know what?
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I got to experience that happiness because, because I had the, the words to advocate for myself. Absolutely. And I, I, I put my foot down.
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And I see some women that are just so buried in their postpartum stress, they don't have those words. But my postpar- oh, my postpartum stress story.
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I almost go- my son almost got kicked out of daycare because I blew up. It was bad, not like me, okay?
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I blew up at one of their workers 'cause I thought they, they'd misplaced or stole a blanket, which they hadn't, okay? Brad put it in a different place.
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And, um, but it was my fault, and they told me that, "Liz, if you react this way or behave this way, we, you can't have your child here."
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And they were totally in their right to say that because I acted completely horribly. And I took it to my doctor. I'm like, "Look, this is not like me, and I don't know what's going on. I feel like I have no control."
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And she put me on 50 milligrams of Zoloft. Amazing. Hmm. And I, I did that for about eight months, and it was great. I love sharing this story 'cause I really believe 50 milligrams of Zoloft never hurt anybody.
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And for me, I needed that. I didn't have postpartum depression. I wasn't thinking of hurting myself or my kid, but I had postpartum emotional distress, which is totally normal.
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And I, because of the stress, like not having my husband available in the first few weeks and months po- he had no paternity leave, that, I, it didn't hit me until, like, six months, eight months later, you know? Yeah.
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Yeah. I think that's what happened to me, too. Mm-hmm. My husband also did not have paternity leave, and I've, I needed the words and I needed the tools to advocate for myself, and I didn't.
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I did not have the words at all. Do it eventually? Did you do it eventually? Yes. So eventually, I figured out what it was that felt so awful, and was able to, to talk with him about it.
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It's still an ongoing conversation, you know? Yeah. Because it, because you're right. It's, it hits you like a ton of bricks and, you know, it's, like, icky, sticky, like, sticking with me, you know? Right.
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And it's, their man has no control over it, and he's like, "Well, what can I do?" And, and that's where, you know,
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a l- like, hey, ask me if I'm thirsty or just bring me a glass of water every time you come up to check on me, or bring me a snack every time you come up, or j- just, um...
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And then if, a- and if, I, I'm, I get very snap. I remember I was very snappy. It was very bad. But I've gotten better.
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I've gotten better because when you start thinking about, okay, I know this time is not gonna be perfect, then you know what you're going into.
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And I didn't get postpartum emotional distress anywhere near as bad as the first time because I had the words for it. I knew what it was. I knew what was happening.
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I didn't have to go on Zoloft the subsequent pregnancies because I knew what to expect, and I knew I'm gonna need support during these hours.
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I'm going to need, um, you know, e- e- easy, nutritious foods accessible at all times.
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I, I made sure he put a mini fridge by my bedside, and a microwave, and a tea kettle, and, like, all these th- I had a little pantry right be- our, our, I had, like, a second kitchen in our bedroom, and that's w- I, I, what I needed.
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And I, my, my fourth postpartum was my best because I followed a lot of the practices in the first 40 days.
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So the fact I get to work with the author, Hanh O, on this project, Chip, it, it's, it's amazing, and I, I hope we inspire women all over the country to, to invest in their postpartum experience.
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I can't wait to share it and see it and just celebrate it, and I thank you for doing it. I mean, it's- Oh, yeah. And it's, it's gonna, I don't need to make money on this. I'm not out to make money on this doc.
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Uh, it's gonna be launching on YouTube for free, and it's gonna be on my website, and I, you know, I've got like 700,000 followers across all my social media platforms, so I'm just gonna be pushing it out on social media, um, hoping other people share it, too.
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And, uh, yeah, I'm just, it's, that, that's the way I think it's, it's meant to be. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. And that's- I'm so glad that we did this. Yeah. Likewise. Great. Have a great day. Oh, you too.
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