When many consumers think of wellness, they tend to think of generic products and services that can be applied to almost everyone. However, the wellness sector is changing significantly and a part of this change is greater inclusion of women and their specific needs. This comes as various women-related health issues such as menstruation and pregnancy complications are becoming destigmatized.
Now, a new $10 million fund is taking on one of the biggest issues facing mothers- post-natal depression- and seeking solutions and products that can be supported in order to solve this issue. The fund in question comes courtesy of Bellabeat, a San Francisco-based women-focused wellness company.
What Bellabeat Does
Bellabeat as a wellness company is focused squarely on women’s wellness products and services and achieves its goals using user data. The user data in question is collected ethically and then analyzed by Bellabeat’s algorithms to suggest customized wellness plans for the company’s over 8 million followers.
Bellabeat specifically collects data on women’s menstrual cycles and this is done both by self-reporting and the use of its various wearable technology pieces such as the Ivy. The Ivy collects data such as user’s heart rate variability, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, sleep quality, and duration. This sort of data does not only aid in the creation of wellness plans but also helps to predict the future wellness of the user and their response to stress.
Now, Bellabeat is using this innovation to go beyond just menstruation and is tackling another big issue for women’s wellness – postnatal depression.
How Bellabeat is Fighting Postnatal Depression
For all the stigma and secrecy that surrounds postnatal depression, it is a surprisingly common occurrence with 3 in 10 mothers suffering from it. More attention and resources are being put into battling postnatal depression and Bellabeat is doing so through its new fund. The recently- announced $10 million fund has been created to support the endeavors of clinics and organizations that are creating solutions for postnatal depression.
The fund will be deployed over a one-year period during which selected candidates will receive funding towards their respective endeavors. A review team led by Bellabeat will choose the candidates that will receive funding and those that will be added to the Bellabeat platform.
Bellabeat will also partner with Ede Frecska that is working towards innovative psychotherapies. Besides supporting external endeavors, Bellabeat is also deploying its predictive technology that had previously used menstrual cycle data to curate programs.
This time, data collected from users will be used to predict postnatal depression and other conditions early and recommend treatment. This is particularly significant because post-natal depression is often detected too late and thus, the women who suffer from it either do not receive treatment for it or suffer distress while they do.
By deploying Bellabeat’s technology, many more women can be helped on time and the rates of postnatal depression can be brought down over time. This news is a big deal for the women’s wellness sector which has been evolving for the last few years.
While there has been criticism of certain women-focused wellness brands like Goop for being superficial and over-commercialized, the inclusion of women in the wellness sector will have many positive implications. In the past, issues like PMS and post-natal depression were considered inevitable parts of womanhood and motherhood that had to be endured. With this change in the wellness sector, these issues can be addressed head-on with personalized solutions that ensure a healthier and happier world.