anxiety for pregnant women. Wearables and AI may eventually make the days between prenatal appointments feel a little less like fighting through the unknown. But more information doesn’t always mean more certainty. For now, the most useful role for these technologies may be as another piece of the pregnan- cy-care puzzle—not a replace- ment for appointments, medical testing, or conversations with a healthcare provider. A smartwatch can notice a change, an algorithm can identi- fy a pattern. But understanding what that data means for you and your pregnancy is still a conversa- tion worth having with a human.
amplify everyday physical discomforts into major health worries. False alarms, normal pregnancy-related changes, obsessive checking, unneces- sary anxiety, and the danger of treating consumer devices as substitutes for medical advice all can add unnecessary anxiety to expecting parents. While wearables and digital records are mostly perceived as positive, confidentiality, privacy, and data control are also a con- cern to mothers, according to a Science Direct study. It says the motivation to use wearable de- vices increases if the use is asso- ciated with positive outcomes, but incorrect or out-of-normal measurements are a source of
cially important as these technol- ogies become more common. When More Data Creates More Anxiety Imagine it’s 2 a.m. An expecting mom wakes up, checks her ring or watch, and sees her resting heart rate is different from yesterday. She immediately turns to Google: Is something wrong? Is it normal pregnancy physiology? Is the device inaccurate? When do I call the doctor? A wearable might tell somone their heart rate changed over- night—but without medical context, what does that actually mean? Constant self-monitoring can turn the body into a 24/7 project. This hyper-focus can
FALL 2026 | PINK&BLUE
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