CREATING A NEW SMARTPHONE APP BABY MONITOR PRODUCT
The Goldilocks Suit is the brainchild of parents Shem and Jamin who have gone through all the typical parenting issues most adults face. As parents they would often ask;
How can I tell if my baby is breathing without disturbing them?
My baby is crying, are they hungry?
My baby looks sick, do they have a temperature and how long have they had it for?
So they recognised the need for some type of technology-rich device that didn’t just help you hear your baby cry from another room, it needed to give you more intuitive information to help you raise your child. Their initial research confirmed these ideas & the areas that cause the most concern and anxiety for parents. So while they have lots of ideas about future product developments to monitor or record other pieces of information about a baby, they realised they needed to cover the basics first.
What do most parents experience with a newborn baby?
Having a newborn should be an amazing and joyful time in a parent’s life. However, it is often an incredibly stressful and overwhelming period. So much so that in a recent study conducted by ZeroToThree it was reported that
‘73% said parenting is their biggest challenge’
This is reflected in the rate of anxiety and depression found in new mothers. In a study published in Archives of Women’s Mental Health reported that of the 68 mothers studied they found ‘19/68 women endorsed subsyndromal difficulties with generalised anxiety’.
Of those 19 only 2 women met the criteria for a major depressive disorder (which in the broader population is more like 10-20% (2)). Importantly for us it indicates a large proportion of new mothers suffer undiagnosed and untreated generalised anxiety for which they are getting little support. Postpartumdepression.org puts the number at:
’70-80% of mothers in the USA, suffer negative feelings or ‘Baby Blues’
In a study published by Frontiers of Psychology 2018 they reported: ‘It was demonstrated that perceived infant temperament contributed significantly to parenting stress 1 year after birth’ and the Archive of Women’s Mental Health in 2014, ‘studies have shown strong associations between infant fuss/cry, poor sleep behaviour and maternal depression’
One of the key issues parents have with the information gained from apps, websites and experts, is:
‘I am sceptical of people who give parenting advice and recommendations if they don’t know my child and my situation specifically’ (4).
DO PARENTS SUFFER FROM ANXIETY WHEN RAISING A BABY?
That feeling of being overwhelmed, uncertain and isolated whilst in a constant state of sleep deprivation is a real problem that many parents suffer. This situation is evidenced by the incidence of anxiety and depression post-birth. So much so, clinicians even have a name for the extreme instances which affect 10-20% of mothers, perinatal depression.
Perinatal depression has long-lasting effects on parents and babies, costing an estimated $538M every year to Australia. This is ignoring the cost of the ‘Baby Blues’ which is typically classified as anxiety and stress that doesn’t meet the threshold of perinatal depression.
We know from our research that these are the areas that cause the most concern and anxiety for parents. So while there could be future developments to monitor or record other pieces of data, we knew we needed to cover the basics first.
CAN THE GOLDILOCKS SUIT HELP PARENTS WITH THEIR BABY?
Shem and Jamin have collaborated with local Australian technology specialists to combine hardware and sensors built into a fabric that works with very intuitive software that can be used via an iOS or Android smartphone app. Not content with just providing alerts or notifications the team spent a lot of time making sure the Goldilocks Suit took advantage of its ability to gather lots of information from the smart clothing as the baby was wearing it.
It has meant that the Goldilocks Suit can monitor, track and provide parenting advice all from an intuitive and simple to use app that you look at in the palm of your hand. No other modules or devices are needed, it is simple and removes all the complexity that lots of other baby monitoring systems may provide.
Monitor; sleeping, breathing, feeding
Track; all their behaviour is recorded so you can review their development. It gives insights into what is normal for your child and what is abnormal.
Advice; there are video tips and advice built into the app that has been jointly written by parenting experts like Wink and Mother Nurture
The goal is to provide lots of great information as well as development history to reduce anxiety levels when trying to raise your baby. You get all the key information in the easy to use smartphone app baby monitoring system.
Shem and Jamin soon discovered that too many parents are overwhelmed and feel alone. They lack the confidence and require reassurance that they are doing the right thing and assistance when they are not. This issue is exacerbated with sleep deprivation and when they perceive the temperament of their baby to be difficult. All the while, parents are sceptical of any advice given unless you know the situation intimately.
So their goal with the Goldilocks Suit was to create a device or a system that could provide 24/7 information to enable parents to make smarter decisions.
HOW DOES THE GOLDILOCKS SUIT GET ALL THIS INFORMATION?
Rather than something that sits on a bedside table or under the sheets, the Goldilocks Suit has the latest biometrics technology built into the soft, cotton, onesie that the baby wears. The sensors capture all the information and send it to a unique Bluetooth Low Emmissions module that safely transmits the data to your smartphone app and its intuitive interface.
The information will help answer all the common questions that most parents had (and that Shem and Jamin experienced themselves) to provide reassurance and help create evidence based care for your baby.
It means you get quantifiable data on an infant’s well being and development while having this all recorded so you have the history of your child’s development.
WHAT MAKES THIS THE RIGHT TIME FOR THE GOLDILOCKS SUIT?
There is a growing trend around the globe for health tracking as evidenced by the success of FitBit, Garmin, Nike and Apple. This acceptance of biometrics technology has begun to flow to baby monitoring products with huge growth of online searches for terms related to ‘Baby Monitor’ on Google, even in Australia there are over 15,000 conducted each month.
While there may have been concerns about baby monitor products that had harmful radio waves the use of the latest Bluetooth Low Emissions standard takes away those concerns. Combine this with the developments in biometrics technology used in clothing and you have a clever combination to create a product that is safe for babies & provides parents with lots of vital information about their child.
