Labor mode, in depth.
When labor starts, we flip the switch and the whole app changes shape. The home screen becomes one screen with one big button. The contraction timer takes over. Everything we'll need is one tap away. I built this imagining I would be holding the phone with one hand and Megan with the other.
Contraction timer with the 5-1-1 rule
One big tap target in the middle of the screen. Press to start a contraction. Press again to end it. The timer remembers the gap from the start of one to the start of the next, and the duration of each one.
Across the top, a calm one-line summary: contractions averaging 6 minutes apart and 45 seconds long for the last 30 minutes. When the 5-1-1 condition is met (five minutes apart, one minute long, for one hour) it shows a soft prompt to call the hospital. It does not flash. It does not shake. It is the calmest screen in a non-calm moment.
Hospital bag checklist
Three sections — Megan's bag, the baby's bag, my bag. Pre-filled with the things we actually need (I cross-referenced three doula lists and the L&D bulletin at my hospital). Editable, checkable, shared. The list also lives in the Prepare section in pregnancy mode, so by the time we hit Labor mode most of it is already checked off.
Birth preferences
A single screen with the things we'd want the L&D team to know — written in plain paragraph form, not as a bullet list. Reviewed with our provider during a third-tri visit. We can share it from the app directly to email or messages so it gets to the on-call team before we walk in. Last-edited date at the bottom so we know it's current.
Partner coaching cards
For me. Short, specific things to do or say. Counter-pressure positions. Breathing patterns I can do with Megan. The right questions to ask the nurse. The right questions to ask Megan. Each card is one thing, in big text, with two backup suggestions below.
I wrote the deck after reading three doula books and asking the L&D nurses I'd worked with for years for their best advice. Their advice was mostly to be useful and not panic. The cards try to make both of those things possible.
Family update share sheet
Three pre-written labor updates we can edit on the fly and send out without thinking. We're at the hospital, no rush — we'll update again soon. Contractions are 4 minutes apart, things are moving. Baby's here, mom is okay, more soon. One tap to the family group thread, or one tap to the Village.
Send Labor Alert — the button
The biggest, easiest-to-find thing on Labor mode's home screen. One tap, a small confirmation step (because I work in healthcare and I know you confirm), and then the Village lights up — a glowing pinned card at the top of the cork board and a soft toast for everyone who has the page open.
Our families will know within seconds. We will not have to write a thing.
I won't read this then. I want it to read me.
Everything in Labor mode is designed under one assumption — that neither of us will be at our most rational. So the buttons are bigger. The screens are simpler. The defaults are better. The decisions are pre-made. Anything that could be done ahead of time has been done ahead of time. I want to walk into the hospital with our hands free.