South Africa’s My Pregnancy Journey claims to be Africa’s “first and own” pregnancy app, delivering information focused on the unique challenges faced by women and girls on the continent.
Launched in August of last year, My Pregnancy Journey is a mobile educational pregnancy app that allows users to personalise it and use any of 30 features to track their pregnancies from week to week.
The app is filled with information about emergency birth, local medical services, nutrition and medication, while there is also a whole father-focused section and advice for adolescent and HIV-positive mothers.
Founder Jacqueline Rogers told Disrupt Africa that while fatal pregnancy outcomes on Africa were very high, there was a lack of locally-relevant content and assistance for expectant mothers. An entrepreneur in the pregnancy industry for 12 years, she set out to to address that problem.
“We took all of our own photos, filmed our own videos and wrote all of our own content. Our app is authentic, beautiful, relevant, interactive, easy to use, addresses issues and educates,” Rogers said.
“Our aim is to empower all women with everything they need to know about pregnancy, health and parenting. We want to inspire our moms in a positive way when raising the next generation, and potentially save some lives in the process. Every mom and baby matters, and it’s important that all expectant mothers and families receive information that could possibly make their unique pregnancy journey a beautiful journey.”
The self-funded startup has made its app available on both iOS and Android, and has already received over 2,000 downloads. Though focused on Africa, downloads have come from all over the world.
“With our app being tech-based we can target women globally, and this is our expansion plan, to not just focus on Africa, but the rest of the world too,” Rogers said.
The first three months of use of My Pregnancy Journey are free, after which six features are subject to a pay wall. Rogers said the startup makes money in other ways too.
“Our directory listing charges a small monthly fee to businesses listing their services on the app,” she said.
“We are collecting basic data that we plan on selling to big companies for market research and product development. Currently there are only statistics, but not specific data on pregnancy, especially in Africa.”
