Five Best Pregnancy Apps

Upon becoming pregnant the first thing I did was goto the book store. I bought the book that I thought was the holy grail of pregnancy books. “What to Expect When Expecting.” It’s the only pregnancy book I’ve heard of, and assumed was necessity. It wasn’t! The book has collected a lot of dust on my shelf.

I’ve read  A LOT of pregnancy books and can suggest many to you, but this is not one.

I found I could get the same information from a phone app plus so much more! Here is a list of my favorite pregnancy apps and why I love them. I’ll also let you know why some others didn’t make the cut.

What APPS Made the Cut:

1. Ovia Pregnancy 

   This is my favorite. Mostly because it is so customizable. You can pick your background for the phone and the theme. Each week it tells you how big your baby is according to the theme you picked. Choices are weird-but-cute animals, Fun & Games, Parisian Bakery, and Fruits & Vegetable. On top of that it also shows how big baby’s hands and feet are if they were to place them on your phone screen each week. The app gives you a brief summary on how baby is growing that week and some changes that could be happening in your body as well. Along with articles to read and a bunch of handy tools suck as kick counter, contraction timer, food safety lookup, medication safety lookup, and symptoms lookup. Check this one out for SURE!

   

2. The Bump

   I really like this one mainly for the articles. They have a variety of articles about topics I never would of thought of, and post new ones everyday. This app also has a question and answer section based off what trimester you are in, which is reassuring when you have a weird question and find out that you are not the only one. The Bump also has a question suggestion list per each doctor visit you will have. For example, This week will be my 36 week appointment and that means I am getting tested from Group B Strep. The app tells me what I can expect to happen in this appointment and then follows up with a list of questions I may want to ask my midwife or doctor. SUPER helpful for those of us who have major pregnancy brain and can never remember anything to ask.

   

3. Sprout

   I love this one. It is a weekly calendar of developing baby. The baby is in a 3D view and you can zoom in and spin to see what the baby looks like at that point in the pregnancy. Each week there are 2 to 3 buttons you can click on and the app tells you what is going on inside developing baby. Also there is a little fruit option and it will show you a visual picture of the baby next to the fruit or vegetable that it is comparable in size to that week. Another cool thing this app does, is once the heartbeat is recognizable it will beat and play the sound of a baby heart beat.

4. Nurture

   This app was one of my favorites in the beginning of my pregnancy and then I stopped using it as much. What I really liked about it, is they have a checklist to follow each day where you log if you took your prenatal vitamin, did you drink water, how many kegals you did, and moods or symptoms you are having. Once you enter your log for the day, the app then tells you whats going on in your pregnancy and the reason you could be having certain symptoms such as mood swings or headaches. The app also has polls each week so you can see how you are doing compared to other pregnant mamas. The reason I quit using this app was because it didn’t give me as much info as some of the other apps I was using and if I forgot to log I felt guilty.

5. BABYLIST

   This is a registry app and is absolutely the BEST. GET THIS ONE! The cool thing about this is there is no one store you are going through. It is all online. Any website you find an item you want on such as Amazon, Land of Nod, even Etsy you can add to your registry. The app allows you to incorporate your other registries from other stores into it so they are all in one place for your friends and family to see. Baby List is super easy to use too. They have buying guides for the best items of that year such as strollers and carseats which is a plus as well. If anyone asked me where I was registered all I had to do was click share and it sent them a link to my registry online.

The Apps That Didn’t Make the Cut:

I haven’t tried out every app but there were two that I did try out and decided they weren’t for me. You may disagree and that is totally fine, but I got better information from the previous listed apps.

The first one is What to Expect. This is the app from the same creators of the book. They have a lot of information and is great for week by week, but some of the information they share causes an unnecessary fear in pregnant moms. This app and the book teaches us to be cautious and worried about every little thing in pregnancy. Our bodies were made to do this, women were biologically designed to create and host a life. While I do find it absolutely necessary to take care of yourself and make the right choices during your pregnancy, this app and book stressed me out to a point of worrying all the time. Which is not healthy for baby and mom.

Second app that I did not care for was Pregnancy Center. This app is comparible to the Ovia app just not as good. They have a menu section for tools and symptoms that doesn’t even work. There are a ton of forums, but the others have that as well. This app could be better, but needs some work from the creators of it.

So, there you have it, my favorite and least favorite pregnancy apps. Check them out and let me know what your favorites are!