Pregnancy management has always been one of the delicate and sophisticated processes in healthcare, as it requires some time, patience, and effort to get the most accurate results. Gladly, today, wearable data is available to improve this process for prospective parents and healthcare services. The collaboration between Oura and Scripps Research Digital Trials Center sets up a first-of-its-kind pregnancy study using wearable technology and retrospective biometric data, which makes the monitoring more convenient. By analyzing data from thousands of Oura Ring users, the project provides real-time, personalized insights into how women’s bodies adapt during pregnancy. This continuous data collection covers vital metrics like sleep, heart rate, skin temperature, and more, helping healthcare providers, insurers, and wellness platforms offer personalized support to pregnant individuals.
In this article, we explore how wearable data is changing pregnancy monitoring, showcasing how Oura’s research redefines pregnancy tracking by eliminating the delays of traditional pregnancy monitoring and follow-up studies. We also cover how retrospective data accelerates discovery and reduces costs, what specific health markers Oura measures, how tagging and algorithm updates enhance personalization, and the transformative impact of integrating these insights into digital health platforms.
Traditional Pregnancy Trials vs. Oura’s Studies
Traditional pregnancy research typically requires enrolling participants, conducting in-person assessments, and monitoring health changes across months or even years. These prospective studies are costly, labor-intensive, and subject to participant attrition.
Oura’s retrospective research model eliminates these barriers by using biometric data already captured by thousands of ring wearers. This approach bypasses the lengthy recruitment and follow-up phases, offering researchers instant access to extensive longitudinal datasets. As a result, findings can be sped up, study costs can be dramatically reduced, and data quality can be enhanced. The wealth of real-world data allows for early identification of biometric shifts and provides a scalable foundation for improving maternal health insights in both research and clinical care settings.
What the Oura Ring Tracks During Pregnancy
The Oura Ring continuously captures a wide array of biometric signals that are highly relevant for pregnancy monitoring:
Heart Rate Trends
- Resting heart rate typically increases during pregnancy, especially in the first trimester. Oura captures nightly averages to track these shifts.
- Trends in HRV (heart rate variability) can indicate physiological stress or recovery status.
Skin Temperature
- A sustained increase in skin temperature can signal early pregnancy. Oura’s sensors have demonstrated the ability to detect pregnancy up to nine days before a positive test.
- Continuous temperature monitoring also helps track circadian shifts and hormonal changes.
Sleep Patterns
- Pregnancy significantly alters sleep quality. Oura captures changes in sleep duration, fragmentation, and time spent in different sleep stages.
- The insights help expectant mothers and providers understand energy levels, stress responses, and nighttime recovery.
Personalization Through Tagging and Algorithm Updates
Beyond passive data collection, Oura offers sophisticated personalization features designed specifically for pregnancy tracking:
- Tagging Routines: The Oura app allows users to annotate their biometric timeline with specific pregnancy-related activities such as prenatal yoga, hydration tracking, medical appointments, or symptom changes. These personalized tags help both users and care providers understand which lifestyle behaviors are influencing biometric trends, offering an added layer of context to raw data.
- Updated Algorithms: Recognizing the unique physiological patterns associated with pregnancy and postpartum recovery, Oura has enhanced its Readiness and Sleep Score algorithms. These improvements help interpret data more accurately by accounting for hormonal changes, body temperature variations, sleep disruptions, and cycle-related biometric shifts. As a result, expectant mothers and their care teams can receive more meaningful, actionable feedback throughout each stage of pregnancy.
Together, these improvements offer a more tailored experience, empowering users and healthcare providers with contextualized, real-time insights to support personalized pregnancy care.
Real Impacts: From Risk Detection to Personalized Support
The implications of Oura’s approach are really profound. With continuous, real-time data streams, healthcare providers and expectant parents gain powerful tools to improve pregnancy outcomes.
- Early-warning potential for complications: Subtle deviations in biometric patterns such as heart rate variability, resting heart rate, or sleep quality can flag potential risks for pre-term labor or miscarriage before traditional symptoms emerge.
- Proactive mental health monitoring: Changes in sleep duration, disturbances, or nighttime activity patterns can indicate early signs of postpartum depression, empowering clinicians to intervene sooner with appropriate support.
- Empowering patients and clinicians: Continuous insights give pregnant individuals and care teams the ability to adjust behaviors, routines, and treatments in real-time, supporting both preventative care and recovery tracking post-delivery.
Integration into Digital Health & Wellness Programs
Thryve enables healthcare organizations, insurers, and employers to harness Oura’s biometric pregnancy insights by integrating this data directly into their digital platforms and wellness ecosystems.
- Providers and Insurers: Integrate continuous Oura Ring pregnancy analytics into care management platforms to personalize prenatal care plans, reduce maternal risks, and improve outcomes. Leverage real-time biometric data for early intervention and enhanced patient monitoring.
- Employers: Use Oura-derived pregnancy data in corporate wellness programs to support pregnant employees with customized tracking, coaching, stress management recommendations, and personalized benefits that promote both maternal and fetal health.
- Digital Health Platforms: Rely on Thryve’s wearable API to securely unify Oura data with other wearables and medical devices. Deliver personalized health recommendations and early-warning insights to empower expectant parents and care providers.
Case Study: UC San Diego's Biometric Map of Pregnancy
UC San Diego has launched an innovative pilot project leveraging Oura Ring data to better understand and personalize maternal health monitoring. The study aims to create a comprehensive “biometric map” of pregnancy by comparing population-level pregnancy data with individualized biometric trends collected from expectant mothers.
By examining sleep patterns, skin temperature fluctuations, heart rate variability, and activity levels, researchers are building personalized pregnancy profiles. These profiles enable clinicians to detect subtle deviations from an individual’s baseline rather than relying solely on generalized clinical thresholds.
The potential impact of this approach includes:
- Defining novel digital biomarkers that could signal early risks, such as pre-eclampsia or gestational hypertension.
- Providing predictive models for maternal health complications using AI and continuous data analysis.
- Allowing healthcare providers to transition from traditional reactive care to proactive, data-driven, and individualized prenatal support.
Ethical Considerations and Best Practices
The handling of sensitive biometric data requires a strong commitment to privacy, security, and ethical best practices. Thryve and its partners follow best practices to ensure:
- Data Privacy and Consent: All user data is encrypted at rest and in transit. Users must provide clear, informed opt-in consent before any data sharing or integration takes place.
- Measurement Accuracy: Thryve ensures high data integrity by promoting standardized guidelines for ring fit and consistent wear protocols. This reduces variability and improves data reliability across all users.
- Equity and Accessibility: Proactive measures are taken to include underrepresented populations and minimize barriers to participation. Efforts include offering multilingual support, compatible device options, and outreach partnerships to improve research inclusivity.
- Voluntary Participation: Users are always invited—not mandated—to engage with pregnancy tracking features. The system is designed to provide supportive, optional insights that empower users without adding pressure or expectations.
Thryve’s Input in Maternal Digital Healthcare
Thryve supports digital health solutions and insurers by streamlining wearable integration, harmonizing biometric data, and delivering personalized health insights.
- Seamless Device Integration: Easily connect Oura Ring and over 500 other health monitoring devices to your platform via a single API, eliminating the need for multiple integrations.
- Standardized Biometric Models: Automatically harmonize biometric data streams, including heart rate, sleep metrics, skin temperature, activity levels, and HRV, making the data actionable and consistent across devices.
- GDPR-Compliant Infrastructure: Ensure full compliance with international privacy and security standards, including GDPR and HIPAA. All data is securely encrypted and managed according to the highest privacy requirements.
- Customizable Dashboards and Alerts: Create tailored dashboards for healthcare providers and patients to visualize pregnancy-related trends, receive real-time alerts for abnormal patterns, and track recovery and readiness metrics post-delivery.
Pregnancy care is evolving, and real-time, wearable-driven data is at the center of this transformation. With Oura’s pregnancy insights and Thryve’s API infrastructure, health platforms can offer scalable, personalized care for one of the most critical periods in a person’s life.
Book a demo to see how Thryve can help you integrate Oura ring pregnancy data into your platform.
