App detects baby's progress and heartbeat in the womb

A new smartphone app allows pregnant mothers to listen to their baby's heartbeat while in the womb and track their progress on a regular basis.

The Bellabeat Connected System comes with a fetal heart-rate monitor that can detect and record heartbeats per minute, weight and the number of times the baby kicks inside the womb.

Mothers' moods throughout the duration of their pregnancy are also tracked and recorded. Once a month, app users are also asked to answer two questions about their overall moods and feelings. If the app detects emerging patterns such as signs of depression, the user is advised to seek professional medical help.

Urska Srsen, the co-founder of Bellabeat, told the Daily Mail: "Listening to your unborn baby's heartbeat was the original feature and all the other features were added around this. There are tons of pregnancy websites and smartphone apps on the market pushing information to consumers, but women don't have the time to interpret all this information in terms of their lifestyle."

Bellabeat has only been available for a month but has already been purchased by 3,000 customers, including 200 expectant mothers in the United Kingdom. Currently, the company is searching for ways to make it available for maternity clinics and practitioners in the United States.

"The Bellabeat System is launched with the vision to make pregnancy tracking interactive and social," Srsen told the Daily Mail. "The ultimate importance of Bellabeat Connected System lies in its aim to bring quantified self tools to pregnancy and start introducing future parents to using digital tools for pregnancy tracking through an easy to understand experience."