Philips Design has developed a new system that uses a combination of smartphones, a wall projector, and design principles to help improve women's birth experiences in the Netherlands, and is about to launch a pilot. Developed after field study and piloted with 60 women in three different delivery rooms, the system builds on the design team's principle of ambient design.

In the system, expectant mothers get a smartphone app which includes two main offerings. One is a breathing coach app that helps prepare the woman for proper labor breathing. The app uses animated visual cues to help the user through the exercise. The other function allows the user to customize the interactive animation that will be projected on the delivery room wall when the woman gives birth.

The animation is actually a visual representation of the birthing process, as measured by sensors on the woman's abdomen. At present, users can choose either a "Nature" display of blooming flowers or an "Abstract" display of colored lines. The picture changes based on the duration, spacing, and intensity of contractions and the dilation moment. In the delivery room, the animation can switch to a large projection of the breathing coach when a contraction occurs. The whole animation is automatically saved on the app as a momento of the occasion.

Lead researcher Jeanine Kierkels, who began the project as part of her graduate work at the Eindhoven University of Technology, presented the technology at Mad*Pow's Healthcare Experience Design conference in Boston. Kierkels was inspired by research that showed one in six women in the Netherlands look back unfavorably at their birthing experience three months later.

She and her team did field research, including interviews with patients, doctors, midwives, and doulas and shadowing women at the pilot sites -- two midwifery practices and the Maxima Medical Center in Veldhoven. They then developed and iterated a prototype. The next step will be to begin the pilot study, with 60 women using the system across the three sites and 60 women not using it.

"Insights gained will inform any potential development of Philips Ambient Experience into the labor and delivery context," Philips Design writes on their website.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that Philips' pilot had already begun. A spokesperson from Philips told MobiHealthNews the company plans to start the pilot in the next few months and to have the first data by September at the earliest.