A Canadian hospital put our nappies to the ultimate test

Last year, a midwife from Canada reached out.

She works in a hospital NICU and had previously used our one-size-fits-most nappies with her own babies. She told me the hospital was working on a grant to research whether cloth nappies could work in their NICU, and she wanted to start by running our nappies through the hospital laundry.

The midwife mentioned she was delighted to discover that Designer Bums had since developed newborn sized nappies. As our newborn nappies snap down to fit babies as small as 1.5kg, it turns out they are the smallest cloth nappies available. They were designed by Carla, the previous owner of Designer Bums, after she had her own preemie baby and discovered the gap.

The hospital was working on a grant to research the feasibility of using cloth nappies in the NICU. The hope was that a successful study would encourage other NICUs to follow, and that introducing reusables in the ward might also inspire parents to continue the practice at home.

Before the study could commence in the NICU, step one was to put our nappies through the hospital laundry and see how they held up.

I know our nappies are durable, I know from personal experience they will last years with proper care and following our wash instructions, but hospital laundries operate with their own wash and santising protocols.  Our nappies were going to get the full treatment.

I won't lie, I was nervous.

Testing began with nappies from our previous collections. Midway through, Continuum launched and newer nappies were added to the trial. For anyone new here, nappies released from 2026 onward are manufactured using thermally laminated fabric, sometimes called TPU. And then we waited.

The feedback came back positive! After months of testing through a vigorous hospital wash routine, the nappies held up.

As things often go with research, the original study was sadly shelved. The grant, however, has been maintained. The local district is contending with serious landfill pressures and is committed to finding sustainable solutions, so the funding is being redirected to a different program. I am continuing to work with the hospital as things evolve, and I cannot wait to share more when the time comes.

For now, I felt compelled to share that this is what we are building toward. Nappies that work not just in your laundry room, but in a hospital across the world, on the tiniest and most delicate babies. That is the standard we hold ourselves to.

Watch this space.