Bloomlife's idea for a pregnancy wearable was born from CEO Eric Dy and co-founder, COO Julien Penders, when they were expecting to become parents themselves.
"My co-founder's wife got pregnant, all my friends were expecting, I was trying to have a baby myself, and we were all seeing this huge transition that people go through when they decide to have a child," Dy said at the International CES on Tuesday.
“When you’re pregnant, there are all these questions and concerns that are often very difficult to answer… There’s a huge need for moms to get more information about their pregnancy, to help them decipher what’s going on and better understand what’s going on, so they can make better decisions.”
So Dy and Penders founded Bloomlife, a company that sells wearables designed to track a pregnant woman’s contractions in real time and send pregnancy data to an app on the user’s smartphone. It serves as what Dy calls a valid second opinion for pregnant women experiencing contractions during their third trimester.
The wearable is a reusable sensor that is applied to a disposable patch. The patch has electrodes that measure the electrical stimulation of the uterus. When an expectant mother has a contraction, the non-invasive electrodes transmit the signal to the user's app.
Dy says the data is useful for all expectant mothers, from those at high risk who want regular updates to those who just want to check in on their body changes every now and then. The data log also gives women a clearer way to discuss pregnancy details with their doctors.
After months of testing and clinical research with more than 500 pregnant women, Bloomlife is now offering its wearables to the public. But they don't come cheap — the company's models start at $149 per month of use. A box comes with the sensor, five disposable patches (each of which lasts for about 7 days), a charger, and an instruction manual.
And once the user gives birth, she can send the sensor back to Bloomlife for recycling.
