Maternity Movement Bracelet

Eighteen months after her son was born, Louise started working as the Maternity Voices Partnership Coordinator for NHS Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Groups and became involved in a local campaign to raise awareness of the importance of women being aware of their babies’ movements in the womb. This gave Louise the opportunity to develop her idea to help pregnant women in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

The project was funded and supported by The Local Maternity System (LMS) in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. The Maternity Movement Bracelet has been designed to help women monitor patterns in their baby’s movements during their pregnancy and to notice when those patterns change. This is important as changes in a baby’s movement can highlight problems with a baby that may require medical intervention.

The NHS Long Term Plan reiterates the NHS’s commitment to a 50% reduction in stillbirth, maternal mortality, neonatal mortality and serious brain injury and a reduction in preterm birth rate, from 8% to 6% by 2025. One of the key targets reported by Saving Babies’ Lives Care Bundle (SBLCB) is to raise awareness on reduced fetal movement (RFM). This target encourages awareness amongst pregnant women and the importance of detecting and reporting reduced movement.

The Maternity Movement Bracelet, therefore, has been designed to help women monitor patterns in their baby’s movements and to notice when those patterns change.

Once the concept of the bracelet was established, the pilot version of the bracelet was trialled locally and was found to be effective. The final design of the bracelet was then developed for commercialisation and the Aska Maternity Movement Bracelet was born.

There are two versions of the bracelet available. Both bracelets have the same concept and have been developed and made by Davidov London LTD. However, there is one version of the bracelet that is available to NHS organisations and a commercial version which has been developed and branded the Aska Maternity Movement Bracelet.

How did MidTECH help?

MidTECH helped with intellectual property policy, commercial discussions, negotiation and contractual aspects of the project.

Following on from the initial local initiative between Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Davidov London Jewellery, Louise and the team approached MidTECH as they wanted to know how they could protect and develop their idea further. Following discussions, the MidTECH team undertook an initial assessment of the innovation.

The MidTECH team looked at the Maternity Movement Bracelet and the scope of any intellectual property that was needed to move the project forward, the workability of the innovation, routes to commercialisation and potential adoption of the Maternity Movement Bracelet by other NHS Trusts and users in the future.

After understanding the concept of the Maternity Movement Bracelet and completing MidTECH’s initial assessment, Louise and the team were then advised on next steps.

MidTECH worked with Telford and Wrekin CCG to help negotiate the royalty with Davidov London Jewellery, with considerations given to different territories, levels of sales, etc. The MidTECH team then drafted the agreement, working alongside Telford and Wrekin CCG and Davidov London Jewellery to amend and then finalise the agreement. Furthermore, the MidTECH team advised on the use of NHS trademarks as part of the marketing strategy and branding of the product.

As mentioned above there are two versions of the bracelet: the Maternity Movement Bracelet which is a low cost version open to be adopted by other NHS organisations, and the commercialised version of the bracelet called the Aska Maternity Movement Bracelet. This version of the bracelet is now available and on sale to buy worldwide.

Quote from Louise Macleod:

“The team from MidTECH were a key partner in ensuring that the commercialisation of the Maternity Movement Bracelet was a success. They supported our team at every step and provided us with support in an area where we have limited experience.”

For more information on the Maternity Movement Bracelet:

It you would like more information on the Maternity Movement Bracelet and how it works, then please visit their case study on Meridian: https://meridian.wazoku.com/#/idea/3ce7eb720f7348179cacabbcc8908ae1?from_parent=true&from_search=true&searchIndex=1

If you would like to purchase the Aska Maternity Movement Bracelet then please visit their website here: https://www.askamaternitymovementbracelet.com/

To find out more about the Aska Maternity Movement Bracelet, or to enquire about rolling out the maternity movements bracelet within your NHS Trust or LMNS please contact:

General enquiries: office@askamaternitymovementbracelet.com;

Sales inquiries: sales@askamaternitymovementbracelet.com;