Contraction Monitor 12+

This app works very well and we used it in preparation of both our children. But I will say one thing: the placement of occasional video ads is INFURIATING. I understand banner ads and small things to pay for a free-ish version, but if you are timing contractions in active labor, you DON'T want to watch a video before proceeding to the next screen.

Designers: Good job on the product and interface. But get a better ad model. Seriously. That's a major UX failure.

Very useful, but you don't find out until you get there that it will only record 20 contractions. Not even after you've recorded the 20th, but as you try to record the 21st. Definitely not a nice surprise for a woman in labor. The limit is fair enough, but wish it was stated somewhere up front. I might have bought the full version if I had known in advance, but not while I was in labor! Aside from that, I thought it was a nice app. Not planning on another baby, but if we were I'd probably use the app again.

Much like the hardware store that jacks up the price of snow shovels in the middle of a blizzard, so too will this app screw you over at the wrong time. It provides for entry of 20 contractions for free. That lasted about 1.5 hours, and just as my wife started a really painful contraction, this app told me that I had to upgrade, which of course I did. "What's going on, this really hurts," she says. "Hold on honey, just need to enter the credit card info, you doing okay?"

Of course, when you update, your prior information does not port over to the app you just paid for, meaning as your wife is in labor and screaming at the top of her lungs, "What the hell is my frequency?," you can't tell her all that effectively.

Bottom line, do not get the free version of this app. Either pay the $0.99 well in advance (the program was working fine while we used it) or avoid it altogether. A little more disclosure by the designer would have been appreciated. My wife thanks you.