Wearable Devices Could Revolutionize Pregnancy Monitoring and Detect Abnormalities

Pregnancy complications such as miscarriage and preterm birth remain major risks to maternal and child health, especially in the United States, where more than 2 million women live in maternal care deserts. Current monitoring methods rely on clinic visits and invasive testing, which can delay detection of adverse outcomes. Now, wearable devices could track physiological patterns that correlate with hormonal changes, offering earlier, more accessible pregnancy monitoring.

Scientists at Scripps Research (La Jolla, CA, USA) have found preliminary evidence suggesting that common wearable devices could remotely monitor pregnancy-related health changes by tracking physiological patterns—like heart rate—that correlate with hormonal fluctuations. Using the PowerMom platform, over 5,600 participants were enrolled, with 108 providing continuous data from three months before pregnancy through six months postpartum. The system analyzed heart rate, sleep, and activity patterns, aligning them with key hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and hCG.

The analysis revealed that heart rate dropped during weeks five to nine of early pregnancy before steadily rising, peaking at 9.4 beats per minute above baseline prior to delivery, then declining postpartum. These physiological patterns correlated strongly with published hormone data, demonstrating predictive models for pregnancy progression. The findings, published in Lancet eBioMedicine, also showed differences in heart rate patterns for pregnancies ending in miscarriage or stillbirth compared to healthy pregnancies.

The study highlights how wearables could transform maternal healthcare by turning consumer devices into medical monitoring tools. This could provide continuous oversight for women in underserved areas and improve early detection of adverse outcomes like gestational diabetes or preeclampsia. Researchers plan to expand the analysis to include diverse demographic groups and to collect blood samples alongside wearable data to validate hormone-heart rate associations for clinical use.

“Wearable devices offer a unique opportunity to develop innovative solutions that address the high number of adverse pregnancy outcomes in the U.S.,” says co-senior author Giorgio Quer. “Our results show that signals collected via wearable sensors follow the expected changes in hormone levels and can detect unique patterns specific to live birth pregnancies, potentially allowing the monitoring of maternal health throughout the pregnancy and postpartum.”

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Scripps Research