Innovative fertility test a game changer for family planning

A Smiths Creek business is offering an innovative way for women to tell if it's the perfect time to get pregnant.

Maybe Baby offers reusable ovulation tests that claim to be easier to use and more precise than classic products that use urine.

With just a dab of saliva, Maybe Baby shows women the most fertile time in their cycle after 10 to 15 minutes of use. AsKen Nemec displays Maybe Baby during a recent convention. estrogen rises, so do salt levels in saliva. Maybe Baby acts like a small microscope, so its viewfinder and light allow users to see those changes just before and during ovulation, showing up in dried saliva as a crystallized, fern-like pattern. For those looking to get pregnant, knowing when conception is most likely to happen is key.

Maybe Baby Chief Financial Officer Ken Nemec, of St. Clair, is a businessman who travels for work often. While in Europe, where the testers are manufactured, he found out about the product. Not only did it seem like a good business endeavor, but he also had a connection to women’s struggles to get pregnant because his daughters experienced them. They eventually both adopted and conceived children, but with the memories of the tears they shed in the back of their father’s mind, he decided Maybe Baby needed to make its way to the United States.

“He thought about what an amazing tool this would have been to be able to aid them and help them conceive, so it really struck a chord with him when he saw this awesome product,” Chief Executive Officer, and Ken’s wife, Stephanie Nemec says.

Ken is a busy man, already very successful in business, and Stephanie is a nurse. To take on another project, it had to be something they truly cared about. They genuinely couldn’t wait to provide help for couples.

Maybe Baby is simple, reliable and, at only the size of a lipstick tube, convenient. The fern-like pattern is blatant and leaves Women look through the vile for a fern-like pattern to determine fertility.the guesswork out of reading the test. It tracks ovulation two to three days in advance. Stephanie says its quality is unparalleled; compared to other models, Maybe Baby has a sturdier lens, a stronger microscope with clear views, and an optic chamber that seals out dust.

But what really sets it apart from traditional ovulation tests is that it can be used over and over again. The lens can be wiped off and used as often as the hopeful mother-to-be wants to use it; there is never anything else to buy, except the battery that may need to be changed. You can find pregnancy tests and a basal thermometer on the company’s website as accompaniments.

“It’s neat for women to be able to know their bodies better and go through their cycles knowing exactly when (they will ovulate). There are a lot of people who want a family plan, they want a certain distance between their kids, or they would like to get pregnant as soon as they decide to,” Stephanie says. “It really narrows down the days and times very well.”

Any hormonal discrepancies, like those that can come with age, breastfeeding, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, can make results inaccurate. Users also have to make sure their saliva is clean before use, which means Maybe Baby can’t be used right after eating a meal, brushing teeth, or smoking.

Since getting started in 2016, the Nemecs and Director of Marketing Matthew Montgomery have launched a website, added sales to Amazon, joined the Blue Water Area Chamber of Commerce and the St. Clair Chamber of Commerce, and learned a great deal about social media.

“We didn’t grow up with phones in our hands, so we had to educate ourselves on newer technology and how to get the word out,” Stephanie says, adding that she and her husband have attended seminars on the subject. As an entrepreneur, if you are unsure about a process or don’t get something done, nobody is going to do it for you.

The staff’s personal goal of helping others has been a success. Ken and Stephanie were even able to help people they know personally. After China relaxed its family planning laws, the Nemecs’ friend’s twin sons living in China were eager to have their second children. The men, close to 40-years-old, already had one child each. One brother’s wife got pregnant right away, but the other waited for months with no luck. First the law was against him, then age, as he watched his twin brother get what they both yearned for. After Ken gave him Maybe Baby, his wife became pregnant within the month.

“It was an awesome story, one of our success stories that was so special because we knew them,” Stephanie says.

Happy results are commonly heard by Ken and Stephanie. Although sales and interest have steadily increased, saliva testing is relatively new, and convincing consumers to stray from the urine-based tests they are used to is challenging. Stephanie says it takes reaching out and educating the public to change their perceptions and show them new options, something she and her husband knew would be part of the job when they took on Maybe Baby.

The word is spreading.

“Between all our sources of sales, we move approximately 100-150 units a month right now. We started with about a dozen oMaybe Baby offers an alternative ovulation test.r so a month 18 months ago,” Montgomery says.

The three-person staff is constantly looking for new ways to grow, getting exposure at trade shows, and talking with stores to put the product on shelves, which Stephanie calls a “process,” along with daily tasks like answering emails and coordinating with the supplier.

“When you start your own business, you always have different thoughts in your mind: “How can we promote things? How can we grow? How can we help people? How can we become more of a part of the community? How can we encourage people?” Stephanie says. “You always have that in the back of your mind.”

The ovulation test is $49.95 and most easily found on maybebabytester.com/