As Santa Fe party goers raise a glass of milk tonight in honor of the locally invented Breast bottle and its recent success, there is no doubt one man’s name will be on the minds of many in the room.

John Prentiss, the bottle’s Santa Fe inventor, died unexpectedly in February, and he certainly would have enjoyed celebrating the fact that the company he started five years ago received two prestigious business awards this year.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has given Adiri Inc. this year’s New Mexico Export Achievement Award, and Russian officials have given the company a Gold Medal Award for The Best Children’s Product of the Year 2005.

The Breastbottle is exactly what it’s name suggests: a bottle in the shape of a breast. It is made of surgical-grade silicone and is soft and pliable like a woman’s breast. It holds 7 ounces of milk and is dishwasher safe.

Richard Miller, the company’s president, said the company recognizes that breast feeding is the best way to feed babies, but acknowledges that women sometimes need to be away from their babies. Also, some women can’t breast feed, he said.

The bottle is the closest babies can come to experiencing breast feeding without an actual breast, Miller said.

Miller said he met Prentiss when he worked for him as a business consultant, but Prentiss soon became a friend as well. Prentiss asked him to run the company two years ago, he said, and he was honored to accept.

“This was the kind of product I was excited about,” Miller said.

And apparently others are excited about the product as well.

With almost no advertising, the company has sold more than 120,000 bottles since 1999, Miller said, and they are now available in Australia, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands , New Zealand, Russia, Spain, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Miller said he plans to add Germany to the list soon.

Locally, people can buy them through the company’s Web site at http://www.breastbottle.com or at the Growing Life Maternity and Nursing store at 11501 Menaul Blvd. NE in Albuquerque , Miller said.

Samra Hendrickson, Growing Life’s owner, said the store has carried the bottle for about three years. “We’re a pro-breastfeeding kind of store, so the shape of the bottle was a natural fit for us,” she said.

“I’ve had mothers come in almost in tears because they’re going back to work next week and the baby won’t take a bottle,” Hendrickson said. “They try the Breastbottle and it works.”

“That’s the kind of feedback I get constantly from customers ,” Hendrickson said.

Miller said the bottles usually cost about $14.95, which is more expensive than most baby bottles, but is worth the price because the Breastbottle is more durable and will last for as long as a baby is drinking from a bottle.

Another reason for tonight’s private party is to give people a chance to view Adiri’s new marketing DVD, Miller said. It includes comments from Dr. Bernie Siegel , author of Love, Medicine and Miracles; Santa Fe Dr. Bill Dean; and Santa Fe registered nurse Tracy Valdez, among others.

Prentiss appears briefly in the video. In it Prentiss said he talked to pediatricians and breast-feeding experts all over the country while designing the bottle. The bottle includes 20 different points of design to make it as close to breast feeding as possible, he said.

The U.S. government issued patents for the Breastbottle and the bottle’s nipple in 1999. That gives the company 20 years to manufacture and sell the products exclusively.

A search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Web site shows that Prentiss also received patents for a concealed, hands-free breastmilk pumping and storage system, a deep-well fluid pump and a water organ that plays music “having a distinctly aqueous character.”

Miller said Prentiss’ goal as an inventor was to create items that would help sustain the environment. “All inventions would do well to imitate nature” was Prentiss’ motto as an inventor, Miller said.

Miller said that in all his dealings with other countries, he’s been surprised that no one has come up with a similar design. “I’ve yet to hear of a bottle like this anywhere in the world,” he said.

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