Mia Ahlberg, Certified Midwife & Associate Professor

I am a midwife at Karolinska University Hospital and I conduct research in pregnancy and childbirth at Karolinska Institutet. I work in both the delivery room and the maternity ward.

In parallel with the practical work, I am also involved in healthcare development to improve the care for women and families, both at the management level within healthcare and as chairperson for several years for the Swedish Midwifery Association.

I have met many women in my role as a chairperson and midwife and know how important it is to get the right information at the right time. Getting the right information gives women the opportunity to make decisions that are important for them and their own health.

As a midwife and researcher, I know that much of the information we have about pregnancy and childbirth is not made available to women in a good way.

I also know that women want information and have experienced how knowledge gives a greater sense of control and power over the decisions that need to be made during pregnancy.

I also have four children of my own and know how difficult it could be to find answers to all the questions I had.

When my colleagues Martin and Olof asked me if I wanted to be part of the work to create an app that would provide women with good, accurate, and personalized information, the answer was undoubtedly yes.

Professor Olof Stephansson, Obsterician and Gynecologist

I am an obsterician at Karolinska University Hospital and a researcher in the field of pregnancy and childbirth at Karolinska Institutet.

In my work as an obsterician, I meet pregnant women, and together we go through possibilities and risks for both the mother and the child. I find that many pregnant women and their partners seek information that is tailored to their circumstances.

In my research, my goal is to make pregnancy and childbirth as safe as possible for both mother and baby. As the person responsible for the National Pregnancy Registry, I have developed a quality system for tracking results and patient experiences during pregnancy and childbirth.

In my work caring for pregnant women, I have felt the desire to provide quality, updated information based on research and clinical experience. I am the responsible doctor for the app and ensure that the information is medically correct and updated.

In my research, I have long collaborated with Martin and Mia and all three of us felt that we wanted to make an app for pregnant women. Now I have finally got the opportunity to answer many of the questions I get as a delivery doctor through the One Million Babies app.

Being a father to three children, I also know what it feels like to offer support to your pregnant partner and that’s also an important experience I want to share.

Professor Martin Neovius

I am a professor at Karolinska Institutet and have conducted research on pregnancy and childbirth for over 10 years together with Mia and Olof.

My research has mainly focused on how obesity, diabetes, and weight loss affect risks for complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

The results of research have been published in several of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. The research has been funded by various organizations including the American National Institutes of Health and the Swedish Research Council.

In this app, I am responsible for the research and the statistical models that enable you to get customized information about your risks for complications, as well as probabilities for when and how you will give birth.

My interest in these probabilities was sparked when my wife and I were expecting our first child. I was dissatisfied with getting a single due date when babies are born as early as week 22, and some come after week 42.

In addition, having to settle for average population-level risks for complications such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia felt insufficient.

I, therefore, developed statistical models to calculate when it was most likely that the baby would be born, and how great the risks were for different complications based on our specific conditions. This made us feel secure seeing how low the probabilities were that the baby would come too early and that serious complications would arise.

Such information should be available to everyone, from pregnant women to midwives and birth doctors. I discussed this with my research colleagues Mia and Olof. That’s when the idea for what has now become One Million Babies was born.