Digital Smart Scales for Pregnancy

Gaining the proper amount of weight is important for your health as well as your baby’s health during pregnancy. The right digital smart scale will ensure that your pregnancy weight gain is on track!

 

Are Smart Scales Safe for Pregnant Women?

So there seems to be a discussion on the internet about smart scales potentially not being safe for pregnant women. Essentially, Yes! It is safe. To be clear, this is not about smart scales in general, but about digital scales that use bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to measure body fat, total body water and other advanced metrics.

BIA essentially sends a minor electrical current through your body to measure your total body water levels, which can inform about body fat levels. Because of the electrical current, it is advised against using these scales if you have a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator in your body.

This has caused concern and raised questions whether this could have an adverse effect. There isn’t any scientific evidence to support this, however. There hasn’t been any research that has warned against using BIA during pregnancy and in fact, various research studies by the National Institutes for Health have actually used BIA in studies on pregnant women.

"Bioimpedance analysis during pregnancy, an easy, fast and non invasive method to estimate the body water composition during pregnancy" -National Institute for Health


Although there are no known health risks for using BIA when you are pregnant, as a precaution, most manufacturers of these scales have some sort of ‘warning’ that pregnant users should consult their physician before using a BIA scale. Or they simply advise not to use it because of minor inaccuracy during pregnancy. Now it might have something to do with our litigation-happy culture, but essentially they are saying better safe than sorry. Pregnancy is a time after all, for extra caution.