Pregnancy
How Pouch Health is giving pregnant patients access to scan images and clinical records
Article produced in association with London Pregnancy Clinic and Pouch Health
A woman attending a private pregnancy scan will often leave her appointment with a printed photograph and a verbal summary of findings.
The detailed report, together with the full image set, may follow by email days later, or may require a login to a clinical portal that is not accessible from a mobile device.
For women managing their antenatal care across multiple providers, including both private clinics and NHS community midwifery, accessing a coherent record of their pregnancy health has historically required considerable effort.
Pouch Health is a digital health platform that was developed specifically to address this problem.
Where Pouch Health Came From
The idea for Pouch Health emerged from direct clinical experience at London Pregnancy Clinic, a private fetal medicine and pregnancy scanning centre that sees hundreds of patients per month across its City of London and West London sites.
The clinical team identified a recurring pattern: patients arriving without their previous scan reports, results being held in disconnected systems, and families unable to share imaging with other members of their care team at key moments.
The app was built as a practical response to these observed gaps, not as a standalone consumer product.
What the Platform Does
Pouch Health is an all-in-one pregnancy companion app.
Its central feature is the Digital Pouch, a personal health record where users can store and access their scan reports, blood test results, appointment summaries and clinical correspondence from any internet-connected device.
The platform is designed to be the single place where a woman’s complete antenatal record lives, accessible to her and shareable with whoever is involved in her care.
The app also includes a week-by-week pregnancy development tracker and a moderated community forum where users can connect with other expectant parents.
These features extend its role beyond records management into broader pregnancy support, though its clinical records function is the most significant from a healthcare perspective.
Tricefy Integration and Real-Time Image Access
London Pregnancy Clinic uses Pouch Health in conjunction with Tricefy, a secure cloud-based imaging platform, to deliver scan images and reports to patients immediately after their appointment.
When a scan is completed at the clinic, images are transferred to Tricefy and made accessible to the patient through Pouch Health, typically within minutes.
This means that patients leave their appointment with their full image set already accessible on their phone rather than waiting for a physical copy or a delayed digital delivery.
The clinical significance of this goes beyond convenience.
When a patient attends a subsequent appointment at a different provider, such as an NHS community midwife or a hospital consultant, having immediate access to their imaging enables more productive clinical conversations and reduces the risk of information being lost at care transitions.
Patient Data Ownership in Antenatal Care
The shift towards patient-held records in the NHS has been a stated goal of digital health policy for some years. NHS England’s digital health commitments include expanded access to patient records through the NHS App.
In the private sector, Pouch Health represents a parallel development: a patient-first approach to data that does not depend on institutional systems granting access, but gives patients control of their own record as a default rather than an exception.
For women receiving care across private and NHS settings simultaneously, this has practical value.
Rather than each provider holding a fragment of the clinical picture, the patient holds the whole record and shares it selectively with whoever needs it.
This model reduces duplication, improves continuity and aligns with the direction of travel in both NHS and private digital health.
A Reported Gap in the Care Experience
An article published by Future Female Health described Pouch Health as a direct response to the fragmented nature of the pregnancy care journey, noting that the app was developed by a team with first-hand clinical experience of the problem it was designed to solve.
This grounding in clinical reality distinguishes Pouch Health from technology products developed without a primary care context.
What This Means for Patients at London Pregnancy Clinic
Patients attending London Pregnancy Clinic receive access to Pouch Health as part of their clinical experience. 3D scan images, anomaly scan reports, NIPT results and fetal wellbeing assessments are all made available through the platform.
For patients who also access care through NHS pathways, the ability to present a complete and current clinical record at every appointment improves care coordination and reduces the administrative burden that typically falls on the patient.
For the wider FemTech sector, Pouch Health illustrates a broader trend: the most effective digital health tools are frequently those built by practitioners who have experienced the clinical problem they are trying to solve.
Technology that emerges from the consultation room rather than the conference room tends to address the right problems.
Disclaimer: This article is produced for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Clinical guidance referenced reflects published NHS, NICE and RCOG standards as at March 2026. Individual circumstances vary; readers are advised to consult a qualified healthcare professional before acting on any information in this article. This piece was produced in association with London Pregnancy Clinic and Pouch Health, which provided background clinical information for editorial purposes. Hyperlinks to external sources are included for reference only and do not represent an endorsement of any product, service or organisation.
A £50m maternity consortium will bring together UK clinicians, researchers and communities to tackle the most critical gaps in maternal care.
Funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research has established the NIHR Inequalities Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium under the leadership of the University of Birmingham and Newcastle University.
Higher education bodies, NHS organisations, community groups and voluntary organisations from across the UK will work together through the programme.
The NIHR has committed £50m over five years to support research led by clinicians, researchers and communities across the consortium.
Professor Joht Singh Chandan, consortium co-lead for research at the University of Birmingham, said: “National attention on maternity safety and equity has never been greater, but ambition must now be matched by evidence and implementation.
“Through this consortium, we will work across the UK to understand what works, for whom and in what contexts, and to ensure that research leads to practical changes in care for the women, babies and families who need them most.”
The launch comes at a pivotal moment for UK maternity care, with growing national attention on improving safety, equity and women’s experiences of care.
The government’s renewed Women’s Health Strategy highlights the need to improve care before and between pregnancies for underserved communities.
Against that backdrop, the consortium will generate the evidence, interventions and research capacity needed to help turn national ambition into practical improvements for women, babies and families.
University of Birmingham is leading work to improve maternity care pathways across the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods.
Antenatal care covers pregnancy before labour, while intrapartum care refers to care during labour and birth.
The consortium will examine how women and families can be better supported before pregnancy and between pregnancies.
This includes improving access to advice and care that can help people prepare for pregnancy, manage existing health conditions and reduce risks before they build up.
Other research will focus on improving care during pregnancy, birth and the early weeks after birth.
This will include work on major causes of poor maternal health, such as high blood pressure, diabetes in pregnancy, obesity, perinatal mental health and complications during recovery after birth.
Professor Judith Rankin OBE, consortium co-lead for research and capacity development at Newcastle University, said: “This funding represents a critical opportunity to make the step change we need to improve outcomes for women and their babies.
“Alongside the research, the Consortium will be investing in tomorrow’s research leaders today to ensure we have the capacity to deliver on improving pregnancy outcomes, access to, and experience of, care.”
The University of Liverpool has secured £1.8m to test a device for postpartum bleeding and launch a new women’s health studio.
The PPH Butterfly is designed to help control postpartum haemorrhage, which is severe bleeding after childbirth and a leading cause of maternal death worldwide.
The funding will support research into how the device can be used in clinical practice and generate evidence to inform its wider adoption.
The university has launched the Women’s Health Innovation Studio, known as the WIN Studio, alongside the project.
The £1.8m initiative is predominantly funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, which is providing £1.5m, with additional support from the university.
The PPH Butterfly project will involve a multi-centre clinical trial across the UK and a global feasibility study looking at how practical it would be to use the device in different healthcare settings.
The WIN Studio is led by Andrew Weeks, professor of international maternal health care at the University of Liverpool and a senior investigator at the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and Dr Teesta Dey, a tenure track fellow in the department of women’s and children’s health.
Dr Dey will also lead the PPH Butterfly project.
Its work will cover conditions linked to female biology, including endometriosis, menopause and pregnancy-related complications.
It will also support technologies for diseases that affect women differently or disproportionately, even when they are not usually classed as gender-specific conditions.
Dr Dey said: “Women’s health has often been marginalised within healthcare systems and innovation markets, resulting in treatments, devices and care models that fail to adequately account for women’s specific needs. WIN Studio seeks to change this status quo and reconfigure how health technologies are conceived and delivered.
“The funding from NIHR for this £1.8m project is precisely the kind of innovation the WIN Studio exists to foster: clinically urgent, women-centred, and with the potential to save lives at scale.”
The studio recently hosted an event at Liverpool Women’s University Hospital as part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Innovation Investment Fortnight.
Seven innovations are currently undergoing clinical testing through the studio, with three developed internally.
The studio will work closely with NHS University Hospitals Liverpool Group and provide clinical, regulatory and commercial support to people developing women’s health technologies.
It will also involve patients and members of the public in shaping research priorities and product development.
Its wider programme includes collaborations involving clinicians, engineers, economists, academics and policymakers.
The project team says the PPH Butterfly is a simple, low-cost device designed to control severe bleeding quickly and with minimal training.
According to the team, postpartum haemorrhage causes around 70,000 deaths globally each year, equal to about one death every seven minutes.
The device previously received £1.1m in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
The latest £1.5m grant will support a randomised UK trial, in which participants are allocated to different treatment groups by chance, and a global feasibility assessment.
Weeks said: “In an area where women face deep health inequalities, WIN Studio has a vital role to play. By working in partnership with the NHS, local government and communities, we can ensure that research leads to real-world impact.
“Liverpool has a highly integrated ecosystem of academic, clinical and commercial expertise. By bringing these together under a single platform, the WIN Studio aims to act as a national exemplar for equitable health innovation. Transforming the way medical technologies are developed is essential to addressing gender disparities in healthcare outcomes.”
Another product supported by the university, the LifeStart Trolley, has already reached commercialisation.
The small mobile resuscitation trolley allows newborn care to be carried out at the bedside while the baby’s umbilical cord remains intact, enabling delayed cord clamping.
Delayed cord clamping means waiting before cutting the cord so blood can continue flowing from the placenta to the baby after birth.
Clinical trials conducted around 10 years ago found that life-saving care could be provided successfully at the bedside using the trolley.
It was later commercialised by Inspiration Healthcare and is now used in more than 70 UK maternity units and in 36 countries, including Norway, Italy and the US.
Type 2 diabetes diagnoses are rising twice as fast in women under 40 as in women over 40, new data shows.
Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition and can lead to complications such as heart attacks and strokes. When it develops in younger people, it can be more aggressive and have more severe and acute effects.
Diagnoses in women under 40 rose by 47 per cent between 2017/18 and 2023/24. By comparison, diagnoses rose by 22 per cent in women aged 40 to 79.
During the same period, type 2 diabetes diagnoses in men under 40 increased by 34 per cent.
Diabetes UK said it is concerned about the follow-up care offered to women who have had gestational diabetes, also known as GDM, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes after pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar that develops during pregnancy and usually goes away after birth, but it raises the risk of type 2 diabetes later.
Colette Marshall, chief executive at Diabetes UK, said: “These figures should be a wake-up call. Type 2 diabetes is rising twice as fast in younger women compared to older women, and a crucial opportunity for prevention is being missed. Every diagnosis is life-changing, but when it develops in younger people, type 2 diabetes is even more aggressive.
“Pregnancy shouldn’t be a pathway to ill health. Yet despite facing a much higher risk of type 2 diabetes, too many women with GDM receive little or no follow-up care after pregnancy.
“As the Government turns its Strategy into action, support for women who have had gestational diabetes must not be overlooked.”
Last year, the NHS published the first national GDM audit for England in 2024/25, which revealed inconsistencies in follow-up care.
Only 57 per cent of women with GDM received an annual HbA1c test, which should be offered to every woman with GDM.
An HbA1c test measures average blood sugar levels over the previous two to three months.
Only 4.5 per cent of women had received support through the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.
The report also found that 11 per cent of women developed prediabetes within five years of having GDM, while 15 per cent developed type 2 diabetes within 10 years.
Prediabetes means blood sugar levels are higher than normal and a person has a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
A recent survey funded by Diabetes UK also found that more than a third of women with GDM felt abandoned by healthcare services after giving birth.
If you live in England and have had gestational diabetes, you can self-refer to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, which supports people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If you live in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, you can speak to your GP about support.
Diabetes UK has written to women’s health minister Baroness Merron calling for urgent improvements to postnatal support for those diagnosed with GDM during pregnancy.
GDM affects between 10 and 20 per cent of pregnant women, but Diabetes UK said cases have long been underreported and UK-wide data on the condition has not been readily available.
The charity said poor follow-up care for women who have had GDM may be contributing to rising rates of type 2 diabetes in younger women.
It is calling for consistent postnatal follow-ups for women after GDM, more referrals to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, greater accountability for improvements in postnatal care, and action on inequalities affecting women from deprived and minority ethnic communities.
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