First-Ever Pregnancy Wearable Device Bloomlife to Measure Contractions
Highlights
- Bloomlife is a small sensor that women can tape to their bellies during the third trimester.
- The wearable is not an official medical device and is supposed to be used as a second opinion.
Detecting labor during pregnancy can be confusing sometimes. Bloomlife is a small sensor that measures electric signals from the uterine muscles and can be taped to the mom's abdomen.
The wearable is intended to be worn by women in the third trimester of their pregnancy and it monitors contractions and then stores the data in an app for iOS or Android that is easy to monitor.
‘Bloomlife, the pregnancy device, can monitor the length, time and strength of both Braxton Hicks contractions which are mild and occur throughout healthy pregnancies and labor contractions.’
Data visualized on the smartphone provides a real-time contraction view, automated contraction counting and timing, and contraction pattern and trend information so women can understand what's happening, gain a sense of how their bodies are preparing for labor, and easily provide accurate information to their birth team.
CEO and co-founder Eric Dy, Bloomlife intends to crowdsource data to improve birth outcomes by building "the largest and most comprehensive data set on maternal and fetal health parameters to identify biomarkers for pregnancy complications."
The idea is that it can offer the user feedback on how often contractions are happening and how many minutes apart they are, so that expectant mothers and their partners can make better informed decisions about whether labor is starting or if it's just a false alarm. In an age where we obsessively track everything, this feels utterly inevitable. And for worried parents, it could be a smart idea.
The wearable attaches to the baby bump and then uses electrical sensors to pick up contractions from the uterine muscle. When you're having a contraction, it'll capture the length of time and also chart the frequency in an app for iOS or Android.
Dr. Dy said, "Bloomlife has developed a better way to move beyond the clunky inconvenient 40-year-old technology that is used in hospitals today that requires strapping women to beds. In doing so, we improve the overall usability, and, since we don't use ultrasound, allow for longitudinal recordings necessary to collect the missing data to advance our understanding of pregnancy and complications such as preterm birth. We see an opportunity to revolutionize medical discovery and innovation, leveraging the power of citizen science and crowdsourced consumer-generated data, which is particularly needed in underserved areas such as pregnancy."
Bloomlife is a leasing device. A one month lease is $150 and two and three month leases are $250 and $300 respectively. It can be pre-ordered the device and it'll be available to ship within the next few months.
Right now, the wearable isn't an official medical device-it's supposed to be used as a second opinion and for "peace of mind." Bloomlife hopes to get FDA approval in the future so it can do other types of monitoring and maybe even detect problems in a pregnancy. The battery on the device lasts about a week and the reusable strip can be worn for a week as well.
Source: Medindia
Cite this Article ⇣⇡
Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:
-
APA
Julia Samuel. (2017, January 09). First-Ever Pregnancy Wearable Device Bloomlife to Measure Contractions. Medindia. Retrieved on Dec 11, 2024 from https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/first-ever-pregnancy-wearable-device-bloomlife-to-measure-contractions-166833-1.htm.
MLA
Julia Samuel. "First-Ever Pregnancy Wearable Device Bloomlife to Measure Contractions". Medindia. Dec 11, 2024. <https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/first-ever-pregnancy-wearable-device-bloomlife-to-measure-contractions-166833-1.htm>.
Chicago
Julia Samuel. "First-Ever Pregnancy Wearable Device Bloomlife to Measure Contractions". Medindia. https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/first-ever-pregnancy-wearable-device-bloomlife-to-measure-contractions-166833-1.htm. (accessed Dec 11, 2024).
Harvard
Julia Samuel. 2017. First-Ever Pregnancy Wearable Device Bloomlife to Measure Contractions. Medindia, viewed Dec 11, 2024, https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/first-ever-pregnancy-wearable-device-bloomlife-to-measure-contractions-166833-1.htm.