A Self-Management App for Maternal Mental Health

Femtech (female technology) describes digital technologies focusing on women’s health, which is gaining enormous growing global attention and investment. One such women’s health area is maternal mental health, which is an increasing problem with a lack of accessible resources. The overall aim of this research programme is to provide evidence to inform, enhance and evaluate the effectiveness of the Moment Health App in order to improve maternal mental health among mothers and their families, and to make maternal mental health mainstream. A mobile application (app) has been developed for new and expectant mothers and their families, which screens for prenatal and postnatal depression and associated anxieties, and includes additional features such as a helpful guide to practical and accessible coping strategies. The app consists of easy-to-use tools including an early intervention symptoms checker, a mood tracker, and a location tool. Further research is ongoing to advance the app, and to test its’ effectiveness in improving maternal mental health. This research programme is providing the evidence to support the stage- of-the-art development, ongoing advances, and evaluations to make maternal mental health mainstream through the use of technology, and thus contributing to the growing femtech.