We became parents in 2018, an amazing and highly transforming experience. Like most new parents, we had never thought much about the waste that plastic diapers were generating.
The deeper we dove into the topic, the more reasons we found for switching to washable diapers (e.g. costs and the strange plastics and other components used in disposable diapers). As we made the switch, we realized that our preconceptions about washable diapers had mostly been wrong – for example, the idea that they were inconvenient to use.
It felt great to know that with each diaper wash, we were saving waste, euros, and irritation for our baby’s sensitive skin.
The one thing that was hard about washable diapers was finding the perfect one. As we had contacts in the Spanish textile industry, felt strongly about the topic, and saw so many misconceptions about washable diapers among friends and family, we decided to create our own washable diaper and start UnuPana.
We (Pascal and Raquel) are an international family (Dutch-Spanish) living in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Our oldest son, Jordaan, just turned 4 years old and we are expecting our second son very soon (I, Raquel, am 39 weeks pregnant as I type this post xD).
After the maternity leave of my son Jordaan and once I was back to my 40hours-per-week job, the idea of creating our own washable diaper, THE perfect one, and doing something MORE for the environment became stronger and stronger.
It took some months before we seriously decided to start deep-diving on how to turn this idea into a business. The more focus and time we invested in it, the more enthusiastic we became about it. We spent most of our holidays by the Mediterranean sea brain-storming, planning and designing how UnuPana would be. The pandemic, however, as for many people in the world, put on hold many of the things that we were doing and planning at that time.
The COVID situation was “on-going” and still we decided to re-take our project. We started working on THE diaper: designing, testing, trying, checking, updating… Jordaan became older. We could test with him on a bigger size (bigger absorption needs too!). With family and friends we tested on newborns, few months old babies, one year-old… We wanted to have the perfect diaper.
The rest came afterwards. I could write another post only about all the things we have been doing to make UnuPana be born as we wanted: washable diapers made in Europe. Green, ethical, soft.
2022 came like a roller coaster: plenty of personal changes, a (bit tough) pregnancy on the way among other professional turns but still we felt strong about our launch, after so much work we could only dream about the launching day!
And here we are, today, writing the UnuPana presentation post for our blog.
We want to say Hi to the world and toast to make the planet a better place for our little ones while ethically caring for the people.
Cheers! :)
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