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California-A new smartphone app allows mothers to listen to the heartbeat of their unborn child and keep track of their baby’s progress in the womb.
The Bellabeat Connected System includes a fetal heart-rate monitor and lets expectant mothers tune in to their baby’s heartbeat and record the sounds. It also tracks important data about the progress of the baby, including heartbeats per minute, the number of times the baby kicks and the weight of the growing foetus.
The app also has the capabilities to track the mood of the soon-to-be mother by recording her feelings throughout pregnancy. If the app detects a pattern emerging, such as symptoms pointing to the early signs of depression, the user is even encouraged to speak to a medical professional. Bellabeat co-founder Urska Srsen, said: ‘Listening to your unborn baby’s heartbeat was the original feature and all the other features were added around this. ‘There are tons of pregnancy websites and smartphone apps on the market pushing information to consumers, but women don’t have the time to interpret all this information in terms of their lifestyle.
‘By analysing important data coming from our devices, we can personalise all the other content. ‘The mood tracker feature is meant to help pregnant women recognise early symptoms of depression. ‘Users will be able to track changes in their moods and feelings throughout pregnancy by recording notes within the app.
‘Additionally, once a month, users will be asked to answer two questions about their feelings and moods overall. If a pattern suggesting early signs of depression emerges, the app encourages users to seek help from their healthcare providers.’ Ms Srsen developed Bellabeat with co-founder and mathematician Sandro Mur after the two met while Ms Mur was working with her mother Dr. Tanja Premru -Srsen.
Dr. Tanja Premru-Srsen is a renowned specialist of obstetrics and gynaecology with special field of interest in maternal-fetal medicine