Professor Desiree Silva (left) and Dr Rae-Chi Huang (right) show the features of the PLAN App to Tapping mother Janelle, who is 32 weeks pregnant, and her daughter Amelia.
A new evidence-based app designed to support pregnant women to live a healthy lifestyle and give their baby the best start has been launched by The Kids Research Institute Australia and the Joondalup Health Campus (JHC).
The PLAN app – Pregnancy Lifestyle Activity Nutrition - is scientifically-designed based on behaviour change theory to help women attain achievable health and weight goals during pregnancy.
The app is available to anyone for free via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Dr Rae-Chi Huang from The Kids, who led the development of the app, said gestational weight gain has long been associated with the development of disease in babies – including conditions like allergies and asthma.
“In Australia, 50 per cent of women enter pregnancy overweight,” Dr Huang said.
This app is designed to support women through a personalised weight tracker, feedback and goal-setting, providing each of them with a tailored experience
“The app contains multiple interactive components providing high quality, scientific health advice and help with motivation to change.”
While the app can be used by anyone, it offers extra advantages to women giving birth at JHC.
Professor Desiree Silva, Head of Paediatrics at JHC and Co-Director of the The Kids-led ORIGINS project, said JHC patients would be offered free appointments with a hospital dietitian – regardless of whether they are giving birth in the private or public systems – if their weight gain during pregnancy indicated it would be beneficial.
“The app gives personalised weight tracker for each woman depending on pre-pregnancy BMI,” she said.
“As soon as someone deviates from optimum weight, they will receive a message and offer of expert support from JHC dietitians.
“Personalised goal setting reminders and feedback are also great features of the app and education information is sent out a couple of times a week appropriate to gestational age.”
Professor Silva said the app provides good advice to all pregnant women.
“You don’t have to live local, although you do need to be booked to deliver at JHC to get the free clinic sessions with our dietitians,” she said.
“Our aim is to improve maternal health for pregnant women, which we believe may improve health of their babies and play a role in prevent disease.
“It’s not always easy to talk about weight and what is great about the app is that it uses colour coded pictorial graphs to help track weight. If a woman is not tracking appropriately, they will be given advice and encouraged to make healthy changes.”
More information about the app can be found at https://www.telethonkids.org.au/plan-app