Non-profit organization Pregnancy After Loss Support launched an app to help couples who are pregnant again after a miscarriage or stillbirth.

The Pregnancy After Loss app, developed by Allobee, allows users to create customized pregnancy progress updates, learn coping skills and self-care, and connect with other community members who are pregnant after experiencing a miscarriage.

"I am so inspired by this community of mothers, and it is wonderful to see their hard work come to fruition," Lindsey Henke, founder and executive director of PALS, said in a statement.

"A majority of women will conceive within two years of pregnancy loss, and we want them to know they are not alone as they navigate the complex challenges of this new pregnancy. We hope the app provides expectant mothers with a sense of community and the courage to find joy during this exciting, though challenging, time."

WHY IT MATTERS

For women who know they’re pregnant, about 10% to 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, a pregnancy loss before 20 weeks gestation, according to the March of Dimes. 

Data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows stillbirth, fetal death after 20 weeks, affects one pregnancy in 100; about 24,000 babies are stillborn in the U.S. each year.

Even though many people are affected by pregnancy loss, it can still be an isolating experience.

Last month, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) announced a bill that would invest $45 million for federal research into pregnancy loss, require the CDC and Department of Health and Human Services to disseminate public health information about miscarriage, and require employers to provide at least three days of paid leave for workers after a miscarriage.

"Pregnancy loss should be met with care, compassion and support. It is a common experience, but many struggle in silence due to the lack of awareness and cultural stigma," Pressley said in a statement. “Our bill sends a message to families that they are not alone, and would support those experiencing the loss of a pregnancy by providing them with the resources, workforce supports, and care necessary to recover and heal.”

THE LARGER TREND

Femtech is still a small portion of the overall digital health market, and so experts believe there’s plenty of room to grow.

Only about 3% of the more than 2,700 digital health deals since 2011 have focused on women’s health, according to a 2020 Rock Health report. Through the first half of 2020, about 65% of that femtech funding went to companies targeting fertility and pregnancy or motherhood.

Rock Health’s report finds some spots where women need digital health support during pregnancy, particularly for women on Medicaid and Black mothers, who face a maternal mortality crisis.

A Frost & Sullivan study released in June predicts the global femtech market will reach $1.15 billion by 2025. Last year, the global market represented only $648 million. But Frost & Sullivan’s report noted the biggest areas for growth are outside the reproductive health and fertility sphere, fields that already see a lot of femtech investment.

“We need to be really thinking about the needs and challenges of senior women, women over 60,” said Reenita Das, global client leader, healthcare and life sciences, for Frost & Sullivan, at a presentation at HIMSS21. “Currently we have very little [in the way of] solutions and products and technologies. Most of our work and growth has been around the fertility and menstruation and pregnancy area.”