There comes a baby! What should I do? Smartphones’ pregnancy-related applications: A web-based overview

Abstract

Our article aims to give an overview of the most mentioned smartphones’ pregnancy-related applications (Apps). A keywords string with selected keywords was entered both in a general search engine (Google®) and PubMed. While PubMed returned no pertinent results, a total of 370 web pages were found on Google®, and 146 of them were selected. All the pregnancy-related Apps cited at least eight times were included. Information about App’s producer, price, contents, privacy policy, and presence of a scientific board was collected. Finally, nine apps were considered. The majority of them were free and available in the two main online markets (Apple® App Store and Android® Google Play). Five apps presented a privacy policy statement, while a scientific board was mentioned in only three. Further studies are needed in order to deepen the knowledge regarding the main risks of these devices, such as privacy loss, contents control concerns, the digital divide and a potential humanization reduction.