Anya is here to provide every parent with practical and emotional support on the overwhelming journey into parenthood.
Using smart technology, we provide parents and parents-to-be with vital support on their breastfeeding and parenting journey, anytime, anywhere.
#AskAnya and #AnyaAnswers, 24/7
Parenting and breastfeeding are hard, and every child is different. We’re here on a phone or tablet alongside everyone, 24/7.
It’s the 3am worries that can get new parents down. #AskAnya and they get the reassurance to put their mind at rest.
Our unique LatchAid 3D tool has been designed to help increase feeding confidence and latch, where parents are.
How do parents know what’s right? We only give evidence-based information. Trusted by the NHS in the UK.
It takes a village. Our specialists are alongside every parent to achieve feeding & parenting goals now and in the future.
Our Founder, Dr. Chen Mao Davies, knows first-hand what a lack of support feels like for a new parent. After a career in Hollywood special effects, the dreams of nursing bliss evaporated after the birth of her first child. Instead she experienced intense pain, and her emotions and thoughts spiralled downwards into depression. That’s when she decided to use her skills to develop an app to help all parents to be confident and to breastfeed successfully.
Sadly, Chen’s struggles are common. The UK has one of the worst breastfeeding rates globally; although 81% of mothers initiated breastfeeding, regrettably 90% of them gave up before they wanted to, due to lack of support, pain, health issues, and isolation or depression. This affects women of all backgrounds and demographics.
Anya is a young and exciting startup, addressing a huge public health need. Meet our growing team of professionals, all dedicated to making the difference to parents worldwide, every day. We built the only app of its kind, powered by top AI specialists, Oscar award-winning visual effects artists and leading lactation consultants. Drop us a line!
Our Founder & CEO, Chen holds a PhD in Computer Graphics and has over 15 years software R&D experience. She spent the past 10 years working in a world-class R&D team to create stunning Visual Effects for feature films including the Oscar & BAFTA award-winning Gravity and Blade Runner 2049. She is a mum of two and had first-hand experience as a once-struggling but later successful breastfeeding mum. Her experience motivated her to create the Anya app to support other parents.
Our Clinical Director is an IBCLC Infant Feeding Specialist working to support improved infant feeding outcomes for families everywhere. Shel works part-time for the NHS, has a small private practice, and provides teaching, writing and other expertise to a number of national charities and organisations. Shel has written a book and been involved in 3 Cochrane systematic reviews and the development of 3 NICE guidelines, and alongside her Anya work, is doing a PhD part time.
Our Marketing Manager Hatii started with us in 2023 as Anya continued to grow exponentially. With her passion for technology and innovation, Hatii spent the majority of her career in the marketing agency world developing a multi-disciplinary skillset across various industries, including healthcare and the NHS.
Emilie is our Client Success Lead. She works with our partners to understand and represent their needs, and to enable to smooth roll-out of our product to their users. Emilie is also a breastfeeding peer supporter after experiencing struggles with breastfeeding her own children, and loves that her actual job now involves supporting others in reaching their breastfeeding goals.
Our Lead Developer Andy has over 10 years of programming and software development experience in a variety of industries including gaming. He’s looking forward to building his own development team to take our app development, improvement and AI machine learning forward. He’s also a dad of one with another one on the way.
Hannah is our App Content Manager & Lead Moderator, and a mother of two. She is a qualified teacher and a Breastfeeding Peer Supporter, volunteering across a variety of platforms locally, nationally and internationally. Additionally she is an aspiring Lactation Consultant, passionate about making breastfeeding support available to all families.
Charlotte is our Media Manager and is a qualified IBCLC, with years of experience as a peer supporter and volunteer coordinator. Her passion comes from her own difficult experience breastfeeding her first son. She was able to successfully breastfeed past infancy after accessing the right support, which galvanised her to work towards her accreditation.
Laura is our Machine Learning Engineer, making sure our Anya AI is performing and delivering the highest quality information. She is an NLP and AI safety expert. Originally from Spain, she is passionate about using their technical skillset to make a positive change in the world.
Arfon is our Operations magician behind the scenes, making sure our tech works and our bills get paid. A dad of two, he supports the whole team to provide the revolutionary app to parents.
Our Specialists are selected based on their qualifications and experience, and their alignment with our ethos and purpose. Many of them have been with us since the beginning and also provide other services to LatchAid Ltd. as we grow. If you would like to work with us, drop us a line.
Our Clinical Director, Shel, is an IBCLC Infant Feeding Specialist working to support improved infant feeding outcomes for families everywhere. She works part-time in the NHS, has a small private practice, and provides teaching, writing and other expertise to a number of national charities and organisations.
Charlotte is an IBCLC, with years of experience as a peer supporter and leader of a breastfeeding group in her hometown. She holds a number of contracts with baby care and infant feeding organisations, primarily working in administration, consulting as an expert, and social media marketing.
Carmen started her career as a children’s nurse and then went on to become a health visitor. She is an IBCLC and volunteered as a breastfeeding peer supporter. She is now mum to three small children and she now divides her time between the kids and supporting infant feeding support. She recently trained and started work as a postnatal doula alongside feeding support.
Louise is an IBCLC and has been supporting families for over 15years, both in community and hospital settings. She is a Breastfeeding Counsellor and Peer Support Trainer with the NCT. Over recent years she has been working in a health visiting service as an infant feeding practitioner, training staff and supporting families experiencing complex feeding challenges. Louise is passionate about parents being heard and supported, where they can set their own agenda and become confident in feeding their baby.
Amy is an IBCLC, Certified Breastfeeding Specialist, Natural Breastfeeding Program provider, ABM Counsellor, Marker and Mentor and National Breastfeeding Helpline volunteer. She has an MSc in Clinical Psychology from University of Wales, Bangor and is mother to 6 children who are home educated. She has been peer supporting in the community since 2012 and working with us since 2020.
Kathryn is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and Holistic Sleep Coach, supporting families to reach their feeding goals and with gentle techniques to help with sleep. She is a mum to four boys, twins and two singletons, and runs Breastfeeding Twins and Triplets UK Facebook group and is a trustee for their UK charity. Kathryn is passionate about empowering parents to breastfeed, no matter how many babies they have!
Dionne has over 25 years’ experience within maternity support, including working as an NHS Midwife, and prides herself in supporting and guiding new and expectant families on their early parenting journey. Information sharing is just one of her passions: after all, we don’t know what we don’t know! Dionne says “I enjoy working in partnerships with people and organisations with shared beliefs in reassuring, informing, empowering and sustaining individuals and communities.”
Dr. Wendy BSc, MSc, PhD, MRPharmS has been a Community Pharmacist for over 40 years. She has also worked as a Practice Support Pharmacist for NHS Portsmouth and an Independent Pharmacist Prescriber. In 2011 she decided to concentrate on activities related to Breastfeeding and Medication. She has written a book and developed E-Learning materials for GPs, Pharmacists, Midwives, Health Visitors and parents.
Sarah is a Registered Nurse and Health Visitor, and an IBCLC, Holistic Sleep Coach and Tongue-tie Practitioner. She is a founder member and former Chair of the Association of Tongue-tie Practitioners, as well as a member of Lactation Consultants of Great Britain, United States Lactation Consultants Association and the Royal College of Nursing. She speaks at national and international conferences and is the author of the book ‘Why Tongue-tie Matters’.
Caroline is a pregnancy, parenting and education specialist. She offers support to parents throughout their parenting journey including antenatal, birth, postnatal, behaviour and sleep support. Previously a headteacher and special needs professional, Caroline holds a PhD in early education and parental engagement. She is a Maternity Voices Partnership chair and has advised the NHS on parental engagement in maternity services as well as training childcare professionals.
Hannah is an independent midwife, based in the North of England, supporting families throughout their antenatal and postnatal journeys. Her passions are homebirth and continuity of care and she works with local organisations seeking to implement them. Hannah facilitates antenatal classes and support sessions for a specialist bereavement charity and local NHS trusts.
As a fast-growing technology startup, it’s important we take the right advice on board as we scale up. Meet our advisors who support LatchAid Ltd. and the birth and growth of Anya.
Dan is the Non-Executive Director Chair of Anya, and our lead investor. He is the former head of Google UK and now a successful start-up founder, investor, and advisor. He is the co-founder of ClearScore and Salary Finance.
Liam is a Business Advisor at Anya. He is the co-founder of Impact Ventures UK, a ten year capital growth fund. He is the chairman of Togetherall, the global mental health platform, and an executive coach. His new book ‘How To Lead With Purpose’ was published in January 2023, with a chapter about Dr. Davies.
Mark is a Business Advisor at Anya. He has been a business advisor with Cambridge Social Ventures since 2014 where he has worked with over 1,000 social ventures. Prior to this he spent over 30 years in technology, co-founding venture capital funded start-ups. He has founded a number of ventures, both commercial and social, and is a qualified coach and mentor.
Chris is our VFX Advisor. He is an award-winning CG Supervisor with over 10 years of experience creating high-end Visual Effects. Over the years Chris’s work has been nominated for several Academy awards (including one win), BAFTAs and VES acknowledgements. Chris wholeheartedly believes in the app and the benefits it will bring to new parents.
Find out more about our amazing app and the journey of our Founder, Dr. Chen Mao Davies
It was not only the app that sparked our interest, but also Chen's courage to share her own experiences and how this drove her ambition and resilience to create an app that empowered mothers/parents/families to be proactive in overcoming their own challenges. Anya by LatchAid's integrity and commitment to quality has enabled us to adapt and change our service model to include digital health. In real life, you can get a lot of information from people around that sow seeds of doubt. The Anya app provides you with that kind of alternative, compassionate, evidence-based response when you are doubting yourself. It’s like a warm hug: you are doing the right thing. Put this app on your phone, it's the closest thing you're going to have to a Lactation Consultant or a peer supporter in your pocket. The initial pilot has grown and developed based on the needs of the population and workforce, resulting in improved health outcome of parents and babies as well as improving the workflow of colleagues. I really struggled with my baby latching and keeping him in the breast during feeds. This app and the community on the app helped me recognise that my baby had a tongue tie and reflux. Since then breastfeeding has become so much easier for us. The support we’ve all been waiting for - I can’t tell you how many Google searches I did during 3am feeds in the early weeks with my son. I just didn’t know where to find the info I needed and at that time of night I couldn’t exactly call up a lactation consultant or a bf helpline. This app bridges that gap perfectly and is a great resource for all those breastfeeding and anyone who wants to support them. I found it useful for loads of different reasons. The AI function was so helpful, just in the middle of the night with the 3am worries, Is the baby getting enough milk? Am I doing it right? You can’t reach out to other people at that time of night, so it was great to have instant feedback from Anya. High quality, factual information. What I like in the app is you can hear the warmth and compassion coming across the words from facilitators in the chat. They kind of encourage and support everything so sensitively. So important when you are an upset mother at 3am. 
2024 Anya | All rights reserved.
