Development and pilot, 2023
Building a birth app together with midwives
Before the trial, the research group built an app for early labour together with midwives, researchers and security experts, and tested it with pregnant women in a pilot study. Here is what they learned, and where the evidence ends.
Karin ÄngebyRegion Värmland and Karlstad UniversityMore about Karin - first-time mothers in the pilot study
- 48first-time mothers in the pilot study
- out of 100 for ease of use
- 85out of 100 for ease of use
- papers: how the app was built, and the pilot
- 2papers: how the app was built, and the pilot
What the study asked
How do you build a digital tool for early labour that rests on midwives’ practice and protects users’ data? And is it practical for women to use before a larger trial?
How it was done
An expert group of midwives, researchers and digital security experts developed the ELSA Birth App together, with Birth by Heart, the company that led the app’s development. It builds on the Birth Without Fear method and on existing knowledge about early labour support. The app was built step by step, and tested with users and for security. In a pilot study, 48 pregnant first-time mothers took part: 24 used the app during pregnancy and had two follow-up phone calls with a midwife, and 24 did not use it and formed a comparison group.
48 first-time mothers
took part in two groups
Used the app
24 women, with two follow-up calls from a midwife
Comparison group
24 women who did not use the app
What the research found
Women who used the app found its exercises simple, easy to understand and useful, and rated it as very easy to use (85 out of 100 on a standard usability scale). The app also made it easier to prepare partners for the birth.
This was a small sample and the aim was on feasibility, but the tested questionnaires worked on both groups in how women experienced early labour or the birth. The team found things to improve, mostly technical, before the app was tested in the trial.
What it can mean for you
Digital support for pregnancy is most useful when it is built with the people who know the care, and when it is clear how your data is handled. You can ask that of any app you use.
Where the evidence ends
A pilot study tests whether something can be used. It does not show whether it works. The pilot group was small. The app’s effect was tested later, in the 2025 trial.
About the researcher
- Name
- Karin Ängeby
- Role
- Midwife, PhD
- Affiliation
- Region Värmland and Karlstad University
- Field
- Early labour and digital support for first-time parents
How this connects to Omaia
Karin’s published studies were not about Omaia, and their results say nothing about Omaia’s effect. We share them because they show the knowledge the research group brings to the planned Triple Helix programme.
- Omaia did not fund, design or run these studies.
- Karin owns the findings and approves how we describe them.
- Omaia’s own evaluation is the planned Triple Helix programme.
Source and citation
Main paper
Women and Birth, 6 April 2023
A mobile application for early labour support: feasibility pilot study
Magdalena Fritzson, Anna Nordin, Elin Børøsund, Margareta Johansson, Cecilie Varsi, Karin Ängeby
Fritzson M, Nordin A, Børøsund E, Johansson M, Varsi C, Ängeby K. A mobile application for early labour support: feasibility pilot study. Women Birth 2023;36(6):495–503. doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2023.03.008
- Type of evidence
- Development study and feasibility pilot
- Evidence level
- Emerging
- Reviewed by researcher
- October 2026
- Language
- English
- PubMed
- Open in PubMed
Also based on
Other papers from the same research, read together with the one above.
Early Labour App: developing a practice-based mobile health application for digital early labour support
Iwaya LH, Nordin A, Fritsch L, Børøsund E, Johansson M, Varsi C, Ängeby K. Int J Med Inform 2023;177:105139.
This page describes the papers above in our own words. Omaia is a non-medical wellbeing service. It makes no diagnosis, gives no treatment, and does not replace contact with a midwife or doctor. Research to Knowledge is approved by the researchers before publication.