To combat maternal morbidity and mortality, interventions designed to increase physical activity levels during and after pregnancy are needed. Mobile phone-based interventions show considerable promise, and BumptUp^® has been carefully developed to address the lack of exercise among pregnant and postpartum women. The primary goal of this pilot study was to test the potential efficacy of BumptUp^® for improving physical activity among pregnant and postpartum women. A randomized controlled clinical trial was performed (N = 35) with women either receiving access to the mhealth app or an educational brochure. Physical activity and self-efficacy for exercise data were collected at baseline (in mid-pregnancy) and at three additional timepoints (late pregnancy, 6 and 12 weeks postpartum). For moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, a clear trend is observed as the mean estimated difference between groups increases from -0.35 (SE: 1.75) in mid-pregnancy to -0.81 (SE: 1.75) in late pregnancy. For self-efficacy for exercise, the estimated difference of means (control-intervention) changed from 0.96 (SE: 6.53) at baseline to -7.64 (SE: 6.66) in late pregnancy and remained at -6.41 (SE: 6.79) and -6.70 (SE: 6.96) at 6 and 12 weeks postpartum, respectively. When assessing the change in self-efficacy from mid-to -ate pregnancy only, there was a statistically significant difference between groups (p = 0.044). BumptUp^® (version 1.0 (3)) shows potential for efficacy. Pilot data suggest key refinements to be made and a larger clinical trial is warranted.

Keywords: exercise; mhealth; postpartum; pregnancy.