Health Monitoring Practices and Sensing Technologies in Prenatal Care

Maternal and infant health is fundamental to a healthy society, yet pregnancy may pose many risks and complications. Early detection and communication of these complications to healthcare professionals is important to ensure the well-being of both mother and child during pregnancy. Sensing technologies, particularly wearable devices, have become valuable tools in prenatal care, offering continuous, non-invasive monitoring of essential health indicators. However, despite their availability, the adoption of these technologies among expectant mothers and healthcare providers remains limited. This underscores the importance of understanding the needs and concerns of all stakeholders involved in prenatal care. It’s also essential to recognize that each pregnancy is unique and includes more than just physical and information needs. That is why a holistic approach to designing prenatal technologies, one that considers all aspects of pregnancy, including emotional and social dimensions is needed.

Our research focuses on exploring the informational needs of expectant parents and healthcare providers in prenatal care and their perceptions towards the use of sensing technologies. By applying approaches from Human-Computer Interaction, we aim to answer the following questions:

1. What information about pregnancy is of interest to expectant parents and healthcare providers?

2. What are the challenges and opportunities presented by sensing technologies in the context of prenatal care?

3. How can we design and develop technologies that address all dimensions of pregnancy care to create a more comprehensive and supportive experience for expectant parents?

4. How can we design and develop technologies that meet the needs and address the concerns of expectant parents and healthcare providers to ensure a holistic and effective prenatal care experience?

• Ksenia Beloturkina
• Prof. Elaine M. Huang

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