Technology is lagging behind in some areas of female healthcare
cognitive , and psychological needs of an individual , we set out to build this company to address the need that we see to support working families and women when they need it .”
Dr Deborah Fox , a senior lecturer in midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney , said she is pleased to have seen femtech making progress over the last several years , although she acknowledges a “ lag in femtech compared to other areas of technology ”.
“ Why does it not have the same performance , and how can this be improved ?” she asked at Medical Festival Asia .
Dr Fox has worked clinically and performed research in Australia , Singapore , and Britain and is currently investigating foetal monitoring technology and how it optimises the physiological processes of women .
�I ’ m pleased to see that , in the last five years , there ’ s been a lot of startups looking more closely at how we ’ re using technology in maternity care , and healthcare professionals are also starting to think about how they interact with technology when they ’ re caring for women ,” she said .
Midwifery is one area in desperate need of both new clinical technology during childbirth and consumer femtech platforms .
In 1968 , for example , the cardiotocograph ( CTG ) came onto the market and its use spread around the world in monitoring continuously the foetal heart , maternal heart , and maternal contractions during labour .
Even today , the machine still dominates maternity care . Unfortunately , it was designed so that women need to be tethered by belly straps and metre-long wires to the machine , effectively tying them down to the bed .
“ Anyone who knows anything at all about the physiology of childbirth would know that one of the worst things you can do is put a woman in a bed and not enable her to have freedom of movement and positioning .
GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com AUGUST 2021
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