6 View gallery <\/p>\n
![\"\u05d4\u05e6\u05d5\u05e8\u05da](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bk11YM9cEWx_0_17_1088_612_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"Necessity")
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Necessity is the mother of invention \u2014 a baby carrier for people with limb loss and a vest for women <\/p>\n
(Photo: Noa Cohen, Shmuel Cohen)<\/p>\n
Noa Cohen knows the military vest well from her own army service. \u201cAfter the war, when I started thinking about product design, I remembered one of the most basic items for every combat soldier: the vest. Female combat soldiers are an integral part of the fighting force, yet the vest women use is the same one designed for men. Our bodies are different, and our needs are different,\u201d Cohen explains. \u201cUsing standard combat gear often causes discomfort, restricts movement, harms operational ability and sometimes even leads to injuries and long-term physical damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
To develop a vest designed specifically for women, Cohen worked with military standards, an ergonomics expert and the Hagor factory, part of Israel\u2019s defense industry in the Gaza border region, which saw great importance in advancing the project. The innovative combat vest she developed, FEM FORT, was designed with close attention to the female body and the operational needs of female soldiers. It allows women to carry out their missions more effectively, taking into account female body proportions, especially in the chest, waist and shoulders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n 6 View gallery <\/p>\n A vest tailored for women, taking the chest and other body characteristics into account <\/p>\n (Development and photo: Noa Cohen)<\/p>\n The vest offers advanced ergonomic solutions, including improved weight distribution, smarter use of surface area and a fit that allows maximum freedom of movement while maintaining safety, accessibility to equipment and long-term durability. It comes in a range of sizes to enable precise, personalized fitting for each soldier.<\/p>\n \u201cA vest is not comfortable for anyone, but for women it is even less so, because of the chest, the weight and a design that was never meant for them,\u201d Cohen says. \u201cWomen also need feminine hygiene products, and it is not always comfortable to ask a male soldier next to you to take something out of a rear pouch. These are the kinds of details I redesigned so they would be easier to access, discreet and more comfortable for women to use.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 6 View gallery <\/p>\n The innovative combat vest she developed, FEM FORT <\/p>\n (Development and photo: Noa Cohen)<\/p>\n To address the weight issue, Cohen created modular components that can be removed depending on the level of protection required in different areas and missions. Another solution focused on support and padding. \u201cIn my user research, female soldiers told me about numbness in their hands and pain caused by the vest pressing on delicate shoulder tissues,\u201d she says. \u201cThe vest I designed offers greater support and padding, which helps distribute the weight. For me, it is a small step in design but a big step toward real operational equality. The world is moving forward, and as the number of female combat soldiers grows, their needs must be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n A key part of returning to normal life after rehabilitation is the ability to function as a parent. The baby carrier developed by Amit Tal focuses on a basic, seemingly obvious aspect of life with an infant: the ability to carry a baby safely and move freely with the child close to the body.<\/p>\n \u201cI was looking for an extreme user group for which I could design an accessible product,\u201d Tal says. \u201cThrough conversations with friends, I started thinking about parenthood. Even a typical parent sometimes needs more than two hands to manage everything involved in caring for a baby, so what do people do if they only have one?\u201d<\/p>\n Tal connected with several people who had lost an arm, whether from birth or injury, who helped her understand their needs and shared their daily challenges. \u201cI realized there is a real difficulty using baby carriers, especially when putting the baby in and taking the baby out. Doing that with one hand and an asymmetrical body is very hard,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cParents want to do everything for their children, even if it comes at a personal cost. People with upper-limb amputations experience overload on the healthy side and suffer pain from extreme movements. Physical contact between parent and baby is both a form of communication and bonding and a way to function in the world. Fathers who lost an arm told me it is hard for them to use a carrier independently, and also hard to hold the baby without one, because the healthy arm gets tired quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 6 View gallery <\/p>\n The unique Huga baby carrier developed by Amit Tal <\/p>\n (Photo: Shmuel Cohen)<\/p>\n The carrier Tal developed, called Huga, is ergonomic and accessible and can be used with one hand, right or left. It emphasizes parental independence, infant safety and ease of use. \u201cIt was important to me that the carrier look like a respectful consumer product, not something improvised or something that looks like a medical device and draws unwanted attention,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was also important that it not hide the amputation. These people are doing the best they can with the challenge they face. That is impressive. It does not need to be covered up.\u201d<\/p>\n Through her observations, Tal saw that parents with limb loss do not give up lifting their baby, but do so using unhealthy postures to stabilize the child during insertion and removal. She addressed those issues in her design. \u201cThe carrier can be used independently, without help,\u201d she says. \u201cThe baby is secured while the carrier is laid out on a surface, and the buckles are magnetic and strong, connecting easily without forcing the wrist into harmful positions. Once the baby is secured, the carrier can be lifted with one hand.\u201d<\/p>\n Maya Halevy developed a digital platform to support home-based rehabilitation for people with limb loss. Halevy chose to meet wounded soldiers and speak with them about the challenges they face during rehabilitation. These conversations revealed a common problem: returning home after rehabilitation and continuing to cope with a new reality without the hospital\u2019s support system.<\/p>\n \u201cI met wounded soldiers, and one of them told me he does not train at all,\u201d Halevy says. \u201cWhen I asked why, he explained that he cannot bring himself to go back to the hospital. He feels like a \u2018patient\u2019 there. I realized that many people return home without adapted tools or ongoing guidance, and continuing the process independently is very complex.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\u05d0\u05e4\u05d5\u05d3](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Sy2DqY9VZx_0_0_1920_1080_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\u05d0\u05e4\u05d5\u05d3](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BJb3PcFqE11l_0_0_2252_3000_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\u05d4\u05de\u05e0\u05e9\u05d0](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Hk1OYFcVbx_0_0_3000_2250_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"The")
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![\"\u05de\u05d0\u05d9\u05d4](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BJg29KKqEZx_0_0_3000_1688_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"Maya")
<\/a>![\"\u05d0\u05e4\u05dc\u05d9\u05e7\u05e6\u05d9\u05d4](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/r125tFqE11x_0_0_3000_1875_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"The")
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