Helping families support new mothers holistically for a healthier postpartum healing journey
Team
UX Designer & Researcher(me),
three other UX Designers
Tools Used
Figma
Timeline
4 weeks
BYTE-SIZED INFO
tl;dr
BloomWell is an integrated maternal wellness ecosystem that combines wearable microneedle sensor technology with a collaborative mobile platform to monitor postpartum health and stress markers in real-time.
I primarily worked on the design of the shared mobile interface which translates physiological data (such as cortisol levels) into actionable "support nudges" for a mother’s partner and family.
This aimed at reducing the cognitive and communication burden on new mothers by enabling their support systems to provide proactive, data-informed care during the postpartum recovery period.
RESEARCH
Understanding the context.
New mothers navigate a complex and often isolating postpartum landscape characterized by invisible physiological stress and emotional fatigue.
Well-intentioned partners and family members often want to help but lack the real-time awareness or data to know when or how to intervene.
This forces the mother to take on the additional cognitive task of identifying her own needs and articulating them, which often leads to a breakdown in support.
PROBLEM FRAMING
How might we design a technological intervention for the support system (family, friends, etc.) of new mothers and help them create a safe environment for the mother to heal emotionally and physically?
INITIAL ITERATIONS
Experimentation with wearable tech.
During ideation, we found a similarity among all our sketches and that was the use of wearable technology to detect stress. We decided to dive a little deeper into the kinds of wearable technology that measure cortisol levels and are safe to use by mothers.
Note: Although we didn’t come across any existing technology that can monitor stress levels for the entirety of the duration of when the mother wears the device, we decided to build on a concept idea based on our secondary research and sketches.
THE DESIGN
How we helped.
#1 Onboarding
Herein, the mother would be able to add her details and fill in the support system contacts. Additionally, there is an option for the mother to control what data she wants to share with her support system.
#2 Monitoring Stress Levels
We would find a baseline for the mother's stress level using an aptamer-responsive microneedle patch. The patch will utilize hybridization chain reaction (HCR) amplification to detect cortisol via skin interstitial fluid.
#3 Baby Guide
We also included a baby guide to include the whole support system in the development of the child. This was tied to our mother’s interview insight which was ‘The support system wanted to help me but at times, did things that would in turn mess things up’.
POST USABILITY TESTING
You are not alone.
Incorporating feedback
AFTERTHOUGHTS
What stayed with me.
Empathy before intervention.
Understanding how mothers navigate stress allowed us to frame physiological feedback as validation and permission to pause, rather than an alarm.
Design for shared understanding.
Making stress visible to trusted support systems created a shared language of care, reducing the burden of asking for help.
Build systems that last.
Designing for evolving motherhood needs and long-term sustainability ensured the product grows with the user, not just a single moment.
