Philly Nurse Creates Subscription Box for Women Trying to Get Pregnant
Think of it as the Birchbox for women who are trying to conceive.
Photo courtesy BINTO
At the top of my list of “Things I Wish Were Just Delivered to Me Every Month” is tampons. (And I know I am not the only one.) And Suzie Welsh, a nurse who until recently specialized in fertility at Penn Fertility Care, just launched a service that gives you just that — plus a whole lot more.
BINTO, a subscription-based service aimed at women who are trying to get pregnant, delivers a tailored box of curated products related to fertility and reproductive health to your doorstop every month — in a pretty purple box — to help make navigating the process of becoming pregnant a bit more simple and less stressful. And yes, that monthly delivery includes goods like organic Cora (a company that launched in Philly!) tampons, because getting pregnant isn’t always as quick and easy as we like to think.
As Welsh, who developed the idea when she was getting her masters degree in nursing at Penn and left her job at Penn to work on BINTO full time, says, she came up with the idea after noticing in her work as a nurse that there was a lack in the market for connecting those who are struggling with infertility to the best products out there. So she created BINTO, which stands for Bun in the Oven.
So, what all comes in this box, you ask? Well, in the subscription process, you fill out a survey that gives BINTO an idea of where you are in the process of getting pregnant so they have an idea of what you need. Each month the box includes three core items: prenatal vitamins, a women’s probiotic pill and feminine care products like organic tampons and wipes. Then, other items are catered to where you are in your fertility journey — if you aren’t currently going through IVF treatments, you’ll get a ClearBlue easy pregnancy test kit and ovulation tracker, and if you are going through IVF treatments, you’ll get other products that make more sense for you. You may also sometimes find items like a stress-relief product or organic or chemical-free lubricant. The products BINTO uses are sustainable when possible and approved by BINTO’s board, which includes folks like Dr. Maureen Kelly who is the medical director at Society Hill Reproductive Medicine (and who happens to be one of our Be Well Philly Health Hero Challenge semifinalists!) and Dr. Nate Denicola, an OBGYN at Penn and an American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists liaison.
The subscription, which auto-renews each month, costs $95 (shipping is free). And while that price point may seem high for a monthly service, Welsh says the items included would run you over $130 per month if you were to buy them on your own. Plus, a big part of the service’s perk lie in the convenience of not having to run to a bazillion stores to get exactly what you need.
What makes BINTO really interesting is that they’re merging knowledge with product: Their online knowledge center will be built out over time to include a streamlined library of reliable online information regarding getting pregnant and infertility issues. “When you look online, it’s a lot of medical jargon. So it’s like how do we take the information people need and get it to them in a streamlined fashion that’s not just a personal call,” Welsh says. “Once they land on the site, we want them to feel like ‘Oh man, finally I’ve found a place where I can get everything I need in one place.’”
And while the company is currently focused on women who are trying to get pregnant, they may eventually expand to include subscription services for pregnancy, post-pregnancy, and general reproductive health, along with services for gay couples trying to start a family. “There are all types of people trying to get pregnant today,” Suzie Welsh says. Her goal is for BINTO to be inclusive of them all.
BINTO just launched regionally last week, but Welsh says she has gotten orders from outside of the area and isn’t opposed to accommodating people outside of Philadelphia. You can find out more about BINTO here. I’ll just be over here waiting around for the general reproductive health box to come into the world (pretty please!) so I never have to step foot in the CVS feminine hygiene aisle again.
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