Every moment of pregnancy contains exciting information about your baby. There are various apps out there today that make awareness of the stunning prenatal development of your baby available at your fingertips. Ten current pregnancy apps are listed in the article “Monitor Your Bump (and Enjoy the Ride!) With the 10 Best Pregnancy Apps for Parents-to-Be.”
In my current pregnancy with my baby nicknamed “Little Guppy,” I have enjoyed using the BabyCenter app. The app is free, and I can access it on my computer or my cellphone. Weekly updates appear on my phone, telling me how many days and weeks along I am, the approximate size of my baby, the schematics of what my baby looks like, and how the inside of my body looks with my baby in my womb. BabyCenter compares the size of the baby as s/he grows to the size of a fruit. For example, at 31 weeks, the baby is about the size of a coconut.
The app includes many other features, such as “Daily Reads,” helpful articles about pregnancy. There is a “Community” section where you can join a group of fellow pregnant women who have a similar due date. There are a lot of pregnant women out there! I was pleasantly surprised to feel far much less alone in my pregnancy journey.
The “Tools” section includes a “Bumpie” feature for taking weekly baby bump selfies. Another feature in this section is called “Is It Safe?”, which provides advice on whether certain things are safe during pregnancy in categories such as “Beauty & Style,” “Fitness,” “Home & Health,” etc. Other tools are “Kick Tracker,” “Registry Builder,” “Baby Names,” “Birth Class,” “Birth Preferences,” and “Contraction Timer.”
The app also showcases incredible animated videos with a narrator explaining the development of your baby in the womb, from conception to birth.
Finally, in my experience with this app, I have also discovered helpful newborn care videos, such as a video of two people showing how to pick up a newborn.
At the end of some of their videos, BabyCenter puts a written message on the screen that reads, “We believe in the journey. We believe in you.”
By Mary Piescik
