SweetMama: Leveraging Technology for Diabetes Education and Support to Low‐Income Pregnant Women

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) during pregnancy are rapidly rising in prevalence and disproportionately burden minority women. Although intensive treatment can improve the health of mothers and babies, the skills and engagement required to achieve good outcomes are complex and burdensome. The social, psychological, knowledge-based, resource-related, and logistical burdens of diabetes during pregnancy reduce women’s ability to achieve healthy pregnancies. Thus, we propose to draw upon existing evidence, a rigorous theoretical foundation, and our preliminary data to refine and test a health behavior tool to educate and support low-income pregnant women with diabetes. Mobile health technology is a promising avenue for such health behavior interventions. This tool, SweetMama, incorporates educational, motivational, and supportive elements to positively impact maternal health behaviors. We will develop an optimized version of SweetMama via in-depth usability testing. We will perform focus groups and individual usability testing with low-income pregnant women with DM followed by iterative refinement of SweetMama based on their input. This proposal will result in a refined, first-of-its kind, scalable mHealth intervention that has the potential to improve perinatal outcomes and reduce DM-related perinatal health.