The Best Pregnancy Apps

The Best Pregnancy Apps

We asked hundreds of expecting parents whether they used pregnancy apps and how they liked them. The most widely used apps were What to Expect, BabyCenter, the Bump, and Ovia, followed by Glow Nurture, Baby Bump, and WebMD Pregnancy.

Many Babylist parents enjoyed having multiple pregnancy apps on their phone: they loved getting all that information. However, it’s worth noting that the majority of people (although not everyone) warned against pregnancy community forums. Although a few found them valuable, but most just felt the forums exposed them to judgment and stress.

(We should also mention, you definitely shouldn’t rely on an app’s forum for serious medical inquiries! It’s best to consult a medical professional.)

Here’s what they loved most about the best pregnancy apps.

  BABY CENTER     Moms raved about the Bumpie feature and the Contraction Counter in the BabyCenter app. The Bumpie feature gives you calendar reminders to take bump selfies (“bumpies”) at regular intervals, so you can track your belly’s growth. The Contraction Counter helps you time your contractions and figure out what they mean when you get closer to labor.

In contrast to the other apps, people actually had some positive things to say about BabyCenter’s community forums! Marie told us, “I like that you can be part of a birth month, so we are all due at the same time and going through the same things. I learned so much I know I never would have learned from books or reading online. I’m still on the app, so we all have been getting to know each other since we were pregnant and are now giving each other advice for our babies.”

That sounds absolutely delightful, but Rebecca’s experience was different. She told us, “I wasn’t a huge fan of the BabyCenter birth group because people were not very kind as a rule– but it had good info.” Even given Rebecca’s comments, BabyCenter’s community forums received less criticism than the other apps.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting is the most widely read pregnancy book, and the app is definitely very popular as well. (Some people like the app better than the book!) The best feature of the app is the timeliness of the information delivery. Tess told us, “Timing was bang on… I’d get newsletters via email that we’re timed perfectly for what I was thinking about.” Another much-loved feature was the fruit size tracker: it’s just so fun to know when your baby is a blueberry, when they’re an orange, when they’re an avocado, etc.

For the most part, people didn’t like the message boards. Rachel was one of many who told us, “Stay away from the drama of chat rooms with other expecting moms. They’re not that nice sometimes, and that can be stressful on you when you’re pregnant.”

One cool feature of the Bump app is the “Inside the Bump” feature which shows you a 3D picture of your growing baby. Besides a 360-degree view, you can tap hotspots to get fun facts about baby’s development.

Kassandra told us, “Although they didn’t give information I hadn’t read in books, I like to check daily/weekly for how baby is developing.” Receiving information from an app can feel better than getting it from a book, because the app can sync up to your life more. As far as the quality of the information, some people felt like it was too much information and other people felt like it didn’t dig deep enough: so, mixed reports.

Some of our strongest warnings against community forums referenced The Bump. Karlie wrote us, “Stay away from the ‘community’ chat areas. They can be a deep dark hole of bad info and crazy people!”