The United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the developed world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. in 2020 was 23.8 per 100,000 live births. The rate is continually on the rise and is nearly double for women of color and women with low incomes. Working to make these preventable deaths decrease starts by breaking down the barriers for women to have access to healthcare throughout pregnancy and postpartum.

While our society has been moving to close the gaps, grave disparities still remain. Certified Exercise Physiologist Dr. Rachel Tinius has witnessed these disparities in her research and has created a product that could help with the lack of exercise-related care that is available to pregnant and postpartum women, specifically those in marginalized groups.

While completing her master’s and doctorate at Washington University in St. Louis, Tinius worked alongside a mentor who was involved with researching how obesity affects metabolism and the ways physical activity can help. Their department became involved in a National Institutes of Health clinical trial involving pregnant women. Through this trial, Tinius worked with overweight and obese pregnant women from the inner city who were coming to her with multiple health issues. She knew this was a population that needed help and decided to do something about it.

"It didn’t take long to see that there was a pretty big problem amongst this population," Tinius said. "It’s substantiated by CDC data that maternal mortality rates are really high in the United States. There is a lot of obesity during pregnancy and that’s a major contributing factor. There are tons of things that come from obesity during pregnancy, like hypertension during pregnancy, gestational diabetes, and mental health issues. Inflammation is another big thing that I studied with my dissertation work. I realized then that there is one simple thing that can prevent and treat all of those things – activity. 

"It’s not being tested, it’s not being talked about,” she added. “We’re talking about medications and we’re talking about diet, but activity is the component of all of this that is just not really being discussed, and it was really frustrating to me, and it still is. We refer to dieticians with no problem but we have no mechanism for how we help these women with activity."

This research led to the creation of her BumptUp app. While there may be other exercise resources for pregnant women out there, none fit the niche that this app serves. BumptUp is designed to be a mobile resource for pregnant women who may not otherwise have access to exercise guidance. The primary goal is to help pregnant women reach 150 minutes of exercise per week, which is what clinical guidelines recommend. In order to do that, the app offers numerous options to its users. There is an educational aspect within the app, as well as a screening system to monitor users’ symptoms. To complete the 150 minutes of exercise each week, users have various options—they can build their own workouts based on their fitness level, the stage of their pregnancy, and what types of activity they enjoy. Another feature that makes BumptUp unique is that its services extend into postpartum, something other pregnancy fitness services don’t offer.  

To better serve her customer base, Tinius plans to make the app affordable and prioritize mobile accessibility. She also hopes that, in the future, OB-GYNs and general practitioners will include the app in their comprehensive patient care so that pregnant women can have easy access to exercise help. 

“There are lots of different options [on BumptUp], so women can really tailor it to where they are fitness-wise, their comfortability with exercise, and also what type of intensity they like to do,” she said. 

“What also sets it apart is that it extends into postpartum,” she added. “Our app is designed to help the mom after she has the baby to gradually increase her activity back up and transition back into being active again. It’s really important that we don’t let them fall off the wagon as soon as they have the baby. Maybe we can make a change in their lifestyle during pregnancy and maybe they could keep that going for the rest of their life. That would be incredible.”

Since creating BumptUp, Tinius has added a few key members to the team including a nurse practitioner, a midwife, two more exercise physiologists, a women’s health physical therapist, and a behavioral anthropologist. They’re also working with an app development company, codelab303, to build the app. 

As the team looks toward the future, their immediate goal is to have the BumptUp app released and available for use this fall. Other future goals include bringing on a strong board of directors, working closely with insurance providers and physicians to include the app in patient care, and potentially conducting a clinical trial. Those who are interested in the app or helping women have healthier pregnancies can get in touch with the BumptUp team or sign up for the app’s waitlist at BumptUpApp.com.

By: Makenzie Purdom

Launch Blue nurtures promising startup founders and university innovators through intensive accelerator and incubator programs. Its funding partners are the University of Kentucky: Office of Technology Commercialization, KY Innovation, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and the National Science Foundation.