Pregnancy belt that lets you monitor your baby continuously. Great idea or recipe for 24/7 anxiety?
Hello everyone.
We've just seen a report in the New Scientist about a new pregnancy belt, due to go on sale at the end of the year, that you can wear 24 hours a day and which lets you listen in to your developing baby's heartbeat and movements – continuously.
The wraparound belt, called Ritmo, will cost about £150, and has 13 sensors, including acoustic and ECG sensors, to monitor your baby's heartbeat, and motion sensors to track kicks, contractions and other movements.
Everything that the belt records is sent to a cloud server for processing, and the results are then sent back to your smartphone.
The inventors say seeing the results could reassure you that your baby is still alive and kicking, even if it hasn't been moving much. And you'll be able to chart how certain activities – like listening to music or meditation – affect your baby's heartbeat.
So, what do you think?
Would you buy a belt like this? Would you be fascinated by all the data you'd get about your baby? Would you be reassured by the constant updates?
Or do you think would you actually be more worrying than reassuring? Would all the monitoring make you hyper-aware of your baby's movements and make your more anxious than you ever would have been about what's happening inside that bump?
Do let us know what you think by posting a reply here. We'd love to hear your thoughts!
(Image: Ritmo/Nuvo Group)
Replies
it sounds like a fascinating product, and i can see it being very useful for perhaps those who are having difficult/complicated pregnancies and want to monitor their babies closely,..yet i feel in the most cases it could lead to possibly more worry and be easy to become obsessed with (i know i probably would!).
I constantly worried when i was pregnant with each of my little ones because of previous MCs, but was reassured on my trips to the midwife to hear my LOs heartbeats or borrowing my friends Doppler and kept a close eye on their movements and called up when i thought there was something wrong.
I feel there is such thing as too much information and not sure i would be reassured by technology that is not recommended or used by medical professionals. (Although i do see positive aspects to the idea the cynic in me would also be inclined to say it is another fad product making money from some mum-to-be's insecurities).
For me I see good and bad, after such a horrid last pregnancy and having early waters go and reduce movement I can see it being a positive thing to have in your home, but I would also panic if I could get it sitting right and it would pick any thing up.
having suffered 2 m/c and a very very scary 2nd pregnancy I think yes I would by this product