Creating a body styler for pregnant women was not part of Valerie Darragh and Sabina Melarti’s master plan. Both new moms, Sabina was studying for her Masters in Spanish/Linguistics, and Valerie worked as a hairstylist while balancing the needs of their young families.

Yet Darragh and Melarti possessed unfulfilled entrepreneurial ambition. So the moms brainstormed business ideas and soon after, Blanqi was born. A body styler line for pregnant women, Blanqi helps to slim, smooth and provide support to burgeoning bellies everywhere. “We wanted to create a line of high fashion, high performance garments with functions not seen anywhere else,” says Darragh. “We knew that if we needed them, surely other women did as well.”

Eager to launch their business, Darragh sewed the first Blanqi prototype. It was well received by the maternity industry—and by the moms’ families. “Our families are very much involved in BLANQI and are by far our biggest cheerleaders,” says Melarti. Today, Blanqi is sold at A Pea in the Pod and other retailers nationwide.

Both working moms—Melarti has two children, Kai [5] and Sienna [4], and Darragh is mom to Jude [5] and Nico [1]—maintain that family comes first before business, even if it means driving 14 hours in one day to be back home in time for dinner. In fact, Darragh even brought her nursing 6 month-old to NYC for a week’s worth of appointments. But the busy working moms wouldn’t have it any other way.  “We just have to remind ourselves that when we’re older, we’re not going to look back and wish that we would’ve worked harder,” says Melarti. “But we would definitely regret it if we missed these precious moments.”