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Introduction Pregnant women/parents have access to a large amount of digital information, which is easy and conveniently available. Mobile technology (mHealth) forms a rapidly growing, influential source of information, particularly in healthcare, where the number of health apps is steadily increasing. A search of pregnancy, birth and parenthood apps found 1200 apps in the Apple-store and 700 in the GooglePlay-store. A majority of women download an average of three pregnancy apps. However, health professionals are concerned about the quality and reliability of online sources. There is a potential for pertinent information not to be included, to be unclear, inaccurate, misleading or out-of-date and consequently non-evidence based of low quality. Nevertheless, the quality of health apps is a crucial parameter, since it may affect health-related decision making and outcomes among end-users. Objectives This symposium will address different aspects of mHealth from a wide-ranging, holistic point of view, based on the experience of the development of the NeoParent-app, a personalised mobile application to promote information, communication and parent participation on a neonatal intensive care unit. Presentations will focus on online access, technological preferences and app use of pregnant women, IT user experience and contextual design research, quality (assessment) of health apps. Presentations of the Symposium Technology access and use, needs and expectations on digital information and communication of women during pregnancy and postpartum Inge Tency Odisee University College Inge Tency is midwife, lecture and researcher at Odisee University College, Department of Midwifery and principal investigator of the NeoParent project. She is also guest professor at Ghent University, Master in Nursing and Midwifery. As a chair person of this symposium, she will briefly introduce the topic of mHealth based on literature review and own research on Internet, computer and mobile technology access and use of women during pregnancy and postpartum. Also women’s needs, expectations and preferences on digital information and communication will be addressed. Additionally, the background of the NeoParent project will be outlined. This presentation is intended to increase the participant’s awareness of the growing use of mobile technology by women during pregnancy and early motherhood, which is inherently associated with the evolution towards a technology integrated health care. Human-centred design and user experience research in app development Davy De Winne Odisee University College Davy De Winne is lecture and researcher at Odisee University College, Department of ICT, involved in the NeoParent project. He has particular expertise in web and app development and IT user experience. He will explain the principles and life-cycle of human-centred design of interactive systems which forms the basis principle for the development of the NeoParent app. The importance of user experience research and involvement of users (namely in co-creation with parents and caregivers) will be highlighted. This presentation is intended to enhance the knowledge of participants on IT user experience of mothers/parents and to demonstrate the importance of app development in health care, with focus on optimizing, strengthening and maintaining patient experiences. Quality of mHealth applications and tools for quality assessment of health apps Pascal Coorevits Ghent University Pascal Coorevits is professor at Ghent University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Public Health, Unit of medical informatics and statistics and expert in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) en mHealth apps, in particular criteria, labelling, certification and evaluation of EHR and app quality. He is involved in several (European) research projects on quality of apps, data and software and is a member of the European Working Group on mHealth Assessment Guidelines. His presentation will focus on the importance of quality of apps, data and software for research and policy purposes and an overview of existing tools to assess the quality of health apps will be given (e.g. Mobile App Rating Scale or MARS of which a Dutch version has been validated during the NeoParent project). This presentation is intended to provide tools for critical appraisal of health applications, which can be used in practice and to motivate participants to discuss digital tools in pregnancy and childbirth with the women and to refer to high-quality digital information.