Mountain Mama founder Teresa Delfín has her best days outdoors, and a really good one includes at least three sports. That didn’t change with pregnancy, even though she couldn’t find the kinds of clothes she was used to. But that’s not the beginning.

Skiing at 4, bouldering at 7, Teresa was raised for adventure. Climbing and kayaking have remained constants, but skiing, mountain biking, surfing, and backpacking each has its season. (Yes, girlfriend’s got gear.) That passion for play landed her jobs in mountaineering shops in Boulder, the Pacific Northwest, and across California, as well as gigs as a climbing instructor in Colorado and Washington. Then she got what she calls her best sponsorship deal ever: grad school.

For seven years she traveled the world doing fieldwork on adventure tourism. By the time she finished her PhD at Stanford, she’d trekked the Inca Trail twice, bagged Peru’s 19,000+ El Misti, and won the Panamanian National Bouldering Comp. But the biggest adventure was yet to come: Pregnancy.

She had just started as a professor when she discovered baby was on the way, but she wasn’t about to give up on adventure – carefully kayaking, bouldering, and mountain biking, but suddenly without the right clothes. After all her years playing and working outdoors, she was shocked to find she couldn’t even find a pair of maternity long underwear for the Tennessee winter. She kept riding her bike to campus through all 40 weeks, but in silly maternity outfits and fleece borrowed from her hubby.

Born of that frustration was the inspiration for a line of technical apparel for maternity. A year immersed in planning and a move back to California later, Mountain Mama was ready to launch.