A new iPhone app, called Nutriprompt, has been created to help women eat healthily while they are trying for a baby.
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Nutriprompt was created by Manchester Metropolitan University lecturer Dr Emma Derbyshire, working with the university’s DigitalLabsMMU.
Dr Derbyshire said: “There are loads of apps for pregnancy on the App Store,” she says. “But healthy nutrition before pregnancy is something that gets overlooked.”
Dr Derbyshire had only recently completed her book, Nutrition in the Childbearing Years, which was published last year, when she realised she had the basis for a thoroughly researched and unique app.
“The book was aimed at GPs, midwives and health practioners,” she says. “The app is about translating that information to the lay public. Everything that I’ve researched and has gone into the book has been broken down and translated into friendly messages.”
How does it work?
Presented over a 12-week timeframe, the app sends daily messages from Monday to Friday – with weekends off - which include reminders and advice. These consist of a series of nutritional and lifestyle prompts for women who are planning to get pregnant. The user can then “delve deeper” to find more in-depth advice.
Dr Derbyshire says: “The main aim is to educate women about the importance of nutrition when they’re planning to have a baby.
“Once you fall pregnant it’s very difficult to change your habits, so the app aims to embed favourable dietary and lifestyle patterns.”
Dr Derbyshire worked with the team at DigitalLabsMMU, the team behind the ground-breaking Manchester Time Machine, to create the app. It will be published by MMU, which has trademarked the Nutriprompt name.
“I had a pretty clear idea about what I wanted to do with the app,” Dr Derbyshire says. “But by working with Darren Dancey and Paul Samuels at DigitalLabsMMU we came up with the idea of being able to ‘delve deeper’ and get more information via weblinks.
“We decided it was important that women understood the reasons for the nutritional prompts they were being given.”
In addition to the app development by DigitalLabsMMU, the design and layout was created by Chris Jackson, an associate lecturer at MMU.
Dr Derbyshire says: “He’s done a great job. It looks really funky and friendly.”
The Nutriprompt app is set to be released in February 2013. It will be available at £1.49 from the App Store.