Cambridge-based fertility health company Ovuline launched Thursday the first-ever pregnancy tracking iOS app Ovia Pregnancy, designed to act as a "woman's 24/7 pregnant companion from conception to birth." The app is tailored to each expecting mother, and reflects her personalized information in its provided feedback and encouragement. At the end of her nine months, the woman will have created a "virtual pregnancy journal" that summarizes and visualizes her personal data in an interactive and shareable timeline.
“Throughout pregnancy, women are searching for answers to important questions, such as ‘What does this symptom mean for me?’, ‘How is my baby doing?’, and ‘Is what I’m feeling normal?’” said Gina Nebesar, VP of Product Development for Ovuline, in the release. "Ovia brings together health data points from multiple source and provides a meaningful resource for the 100 million women who are pregnant each year.”
Part daily log and part health education tool, Ovia Pregnancy empowers women by enabling them to stay tuned in to their body's changes, and provides the tools necessary to learn more about them. Using data-driven metrics, Ovia's app allows women to track ten key health stats, such as weight, moods, sleep and symptoms. The app also features a kick counter and contraction timer. Over four-hundred articles and resources are also stored on the app, and are dynamically offered based upon each woman's unique experience and pregnancy process.
Health-related data, such as pregnancy calendar, food and medication safety information, are also built into the app, and act as a quick and reliable resource.
But the app isn't just for tracking stats. In addition to serving as a health tracking platform, Ovia Pregnancy also has a social component as well. Women can upload photos to and create notes, like potential baby names, on the app, which are then stored within in a real-time sequence. So, when the woman's pregnancy journey has been completed, she will have a highly customized and sharable digital scrapbook documenting the process.
The launch of Ovia Pregnancy is the next step in the company’s mission to build a complete health platform for women. The company plans to continue to release products that provide personalized health tracking and feedback for women and their children in the critical first years of a child’s life. As part of this initiative, the company's next release revolves around a similar health tracking and documentation technology designed to aid new mothers throughout the early years of childhood.
“Imagine all of the questions we can answer about women trying to conceive and going through pregnancy. We’re thinking big: connections that link pre-conception health and symptoms during pregnancy to the child’s development in infancy," said Paris Wallace, CEO of Ovuline. "Thanks to our proprietary personal health platform, we have amazing analytical potential – we can uncover insights that will shape the health of future generations.”
Ovuline’s team includes Harvard scientists, fertility experts and parents. The company graduated from Boston Techstars in November 2012 and is venture-backed by Lightbank, LionBird, Launch Capital and Techstars founder and CEO David Cohen. The company has raised $2.75 million to date.
