An emerging model of maternity care: Smartphone, midwife, doctor?

Background: Mobile technology in the form of the smartphone is widely used, particularly in pregnancy and they are an increasing and influential source of information. Aim: To describe the diverse nature of pregnancy related applications (apps) for the smartphone and to flag that these apps can potentially affect maternity care and should be considered in future planning of care provision. Methods: The 2 smartphone platforms, Apple and Android, were searched for pregnancy related apps and reviewed for their purpose and popularity. Findings: iTunes and Google Play returned 1059 and 497 pregnancy related apps respectively. Forty percent of the apps were informative, 13% interactive, 19% had features of a medical tool and 11% were social media apps. By far the most popular apps, calculated as the number of reviews multiplied by average reviewer rating, were those with interactive features. Discussion: The popularity of pregnancy-related apps could indicate a shift towards patient empowerment within maternity care provision. The traditional model of 'shared maternity care' needs to accommodate electronic devices into its functioning. Reliance on healthcare professionals may be reduced by the availability of interactive and personalised information delivered via a smartphone. This combined with the fact that smartphones are widely used by many women of childbearing age, has the potential to modify maternity care and experiences of pregnancy. Therefore it is important that healthcare professionals and policy-makers are more aware of these new developments, which are likely to influence healthcare and alter health-seeking behaviour. In addition healthcare professionals need to consider whether to discuss the use of apps in pregnancy with the women in their care.