Alongside

The problem

Standard pregnancy apps assume one outcome: a healthy baby, at home, on schedule. The same milestone notifications and cheerful updates that help when things go to plan become a source of real pain when they don't, and most bereaved parents end up deleting the app entirely, losing months of written memories along with it.

The approach

• Designed a tone and topic control layer first, celebratory, gentle, or hidden entirely, so the app adapts to the person instead of assuming their outcome
• Built journaling, pregnancy tracking and wellbeing tools that work the same whether someone is expecting, grieving, or recovering postpartum without a baby
• Shaped the whole product with guidance from a Red Nose Hospital to Home counsellor and from other bereaved parents' own accounts of what their apps got wrong

The outcome

Alongside is free and live on the App Store. It's still early days, but it's already the app we wished we'd had: one that recognises loss instead of overlooking it.