How We Develop Our Product Reviews at the Bump
Pregnancy and parenting call for all the things. Raising babies can be an expensive endeavor, and we want you to spend your time, energy and money wisely. To that end, our goal is to create product reviews that break down what you really need, which brands make the best gear for specific needs and uses, and where to buy it.
To accomplish this, we put in months of extensive market research, community outreach and product testing for each article to determine what products parents are using and which are truly meeting their needs. We consider a wide range of perspectives from expectant, new and seasoned parents from The Bump community to inform our choices. We partner with parent product testers, read through forums on our own site and others, conduct expansive surveys that cover a wide range of specific product categories and ask our staff members about their experiences. All of these factors help us figure out what products are practical and worth purchasing for various needs, budgets and lifestyles—and which we decide to feature in our articles. Below, read more about how we develop product reviews at The Bump from start to finish.
The central purpose of our product reviews is to recommend gear that meets the needs of expectant and new parents. We don’t just want to know everything about a product; we want to know why parents need it in the first place. We want to understand what features and functions are really going to help parents based on their unique needs. For these reasons, our product reviews always begin with extensive market research.
Community research
We start out by poring over dozens of community forum pages and message boards on The Bump and other external websites to identify parenting needs and pain points within a specific product category. What are the challenges that these products are meant to solve? What critical features and functions do families expect from these items? What are the common difficulties and frustrations that parents often run into when using these types of products? For example, we may learn that a good nursing cover has to offer discreet coverage, a versatile design and comfort for both Mom and baby—and that overheating and not being able to see how well your nursing baby has latched are among the frequent pain points parents tend to encounter when using nursing covers. Of course, every family has specific needs based on their circumstances and lifestyle, and the same product won’t be best for everyone. So we take things one step further by identifying the special features and particular uses people are shopping for, so we can test how well products address these very targeted needs. We combine these insights to inform which products we want to test or consider for our articles and what criteria we use to evaluate their performance.
Surveys
To gather more information from a wider pool of parents and parents-to-be, we conduct large-scale surveys of The Bump community members several times a year. These surveys include dozens of thorough questions about what gear they’ve found useful throughout their parenting journeys, what they liked and disliked about certain brands and products and how a product’s features worked well with their unique needs. We also frequently pick the brains of moms and dads who are on staff at The Bump and our parent company, The Knot Worldwide, to gain further insight into pregnancy and baby gear. After all, we’re not just pregnancy and parenting experts, we’re also parents ourselves!
Expert interviews and academic research
To further understand what parents need from pregnancy, baby and toddler gear, we seek advice from medical professionals and area experts, ranging from pediatricians and ob-gyns to lactation consultants, postpartum doulas and more. We interview these experts to learn what factors parents should consider when choosing products, the features, functions and ingredients to look for or avoid, and any other safety guidelines that should be taken into account. We read academic papers to better understand what makes a product safe and effective and how guidelines may have evolved with emerging discoveries and data. For example, when researching baby formulas, we read studies that explained the role human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) play in infant formula and breast milk, as well as reports on why amino acid-based formulas may be helpful for babies with severe digestive issues. This research deepens our knowledge of a product category and allows us to identify what brand claims and product features can truly be counted on—and which are just marketing jargon.
Product research
Once we gather this information, we research what products are available on the market and how they may be able to meet the specific parent needs we identified earlier in our process. We drill down on product features, functions, ingredients and specs, comparing and contrasting what products within the same category offer parents and whether they align with expert guidance and recommendations. We also make sure company claims are verifiable, instead of taking them at face value. For example, if a postnatal vitamin claims its formula promotes lactation, we make sure there are studies showing that the active ingredient is in fact effective, or that the company can point to results from clinical studies they’ve conducted. What’s more, we consider what parents say about specific brands and products in forums and individual customer reviews for a more well-rounded view. Based on all of this insight, we narrow our initial selections to a shortlist of the top products on the market. Next step: Testing.
After identifying the top pregnancy, baby and toddler items within a particular category, we begin independent product testing. We strive to put products in the hands of families nationwide to see if and how the products live up to their claims when used in everyday, real-life scenarios and settings.
Matching families with products
We start this process by meticulously matching products with testers who have the relevant lifestyle and experiences to accurately assess whether the item is actually good for a specific use or need. So if we tell you a stroller is best for parents with a newborn, we made sure to have a parent of a newborn try that stroller out. Or if we highlight a pregnancy pillow that’s particularly good for easing hip pain, it means we had a pregnant mom who was experiencing hip pain test that pillow. And if we think it’s important to find the best jogger for left-handed parents born under a full moon, we’ll find a mom or dad who fits that description too! Needless to say, when you see that a product in our articles is called the best for a certain need, it truly earned that title.
Testing in real-world conditions
Once we get the product to the parent, the fun begins. Families who independently test for us try these products in their homes under real-world conditions. For instance, when testing nursing pajamas, we had moms wear the sleepwear for at least three nights, breastfeed in the PJs at least twice and wash and dry them based on the product’s care instructions. Likewise, for two-seater kids’ wagons, we had parents test with two of their children at least four times for 30 minutes or more in different environments (such as sidewalks, grassy areas and in stores). We even had them fold the wagons and put them in and out of the trunk of their cars to see how easy they were to lift and how much space they took up. These testing parameters are uniquely tailored to each product category to ensure that we have a full understanding of how items perform for real families.
Gathering product tester feedback
After testing, parents rigorously assess the gear across product-specific criteria, such as ease of use, style and design, and value for money, to name a few. They answer dozens of questions developed by The Bump editorial team to provide us with enough insight into how the product performed. If a product test doesn’t offer us enough information to determine whether or not it belongs in an article, we’ll re-test the gear with another parent until we have a well-rounded understanding of the product’s performance. This step helps us uphold the rigor and integrity of our product-testing process.
After all of these steps are complete, we compile all of the user and product research, surveys, expert advice and product test results and share this key information with our writers and editors to select the best-of-the-best products to feature in the article. By considering the entirety of the information we’ve compiled—including tester feedback, survey results, staff experiences, forum comments and customer reviews—we can incorporate a wide range of parent perspectives rather than basing our recommendations on one tester’s individual experience.
It’s important to note that while The Bump editorial team takes great pains to conduct extensive product testing, not every commerce article we publish involves hands-on testing. For product reviews on The Bump that haven’t called for testing, we still conduct extensive market research and consider a range of parent perspectives. We infuse firsthand product experience into our non-tested reviews by consulting with parents in The Bump community and reading through forums on our site and others. As a result, we better understand exactly what parents look for in pregnancy, baby and toddler gear and what their firsthand experiences have been like with specific brands and products.
Our product review articles typically highlight the overall best product in a category, but we don’t stop there—we’ll also recommend what we deem to be the best products for specific needs. If you’re shopping for a high chair, for example, we’ll include our top choice, as well as best options for easy cleaning, for small spaces, for budget-conscious families and more.
From there, our writers type up our product reviews, which explain why an item is a standout choice, how it might compare to others on the market and what parents’ real-life experiences were with the product, including any negatives that shoppers should consider. That copy is shared with staff editors for a comprehensive edit and then passed to senior staff editors for a final review and approval before going live. Articles that contain significant health and medical advice are sent to an ob-gyn or pediatrician for medical review prior to publication.
Annually, The Bump highlights the absolute best items for pregnancy and parenting needs through our Best of The Bump awards program. Leading up to the series each year, we test hundreds of products across dozens of categories to deepen our understanding of the current market and how this gear is meeting the needs of families nationwide. When a product earns a Best of The Bump seal, it means it’s surpassed all others in its category in terms of function, features and value for money, among other qualities.
Brands with Best of The Bump-winning products are able to license our award seal for use in marketing materials and packaging. For products that have gone through our standard testing protocol and are featured in our commerce articles outside of the Best of The Bump awards, an “Editor’s Pick” seal is available. If you see one of these badges on a product package or a company website, it means that product met the high standards of the process you’ve read about today.
For any licensing inquiries, please connect with our official licensing partner, Wright’s Media, at thebump@wrightsmedia.com.
The Bump participates in affiliate partnerships with a number of leading retailers and brands, which means that when we recommend pregnancy, baby and toddler gear in our product reviews, we may receive commissions from purchases made through some of the links in our articles—but not all of them. The Bump editorial team features the products we think are best for families, regardless of whether or not that item is available at a partner merchant. The potential to earn affiliate commissions doesn’t influence our research process, product-led approach or editorial integrity. Additionally, we have a careful vetting process for our affiliate partners to ensure we only build relationships with reputable brands and retailers. We never waiver from our mission to provide new and expectant parents with information and recommendations that help them discover the right products for their individual needs
Curious to learn how we develop our health and lifestyle features? Learn more here.
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