Smart Fetal Monitoring

Fetal movement is an important index of fetal well-being. The absence or a reduction in fetal movement is a symptom or an alarming sign of fetal compromise or even death. The timely detection of abnormalities in fetal movement is vital to reduce the incidence of fetal loss, perinatal morbidity and maternal distress. This paper presents a smart fetal monitoring system to detect fetal movement and monitor movement pattern safely and reliably by using a new fabric sensor belt. The monitoring belt is wearable, non-intrusive, radiation free and washable. The new algorithms are robust for automated analysis, detection and assessment of fetal condition, which include effective noise removal, feature extraction, time sequence data analysis and decision support. Both the design of fabric sensor and functionality implementation of the belt are original and unique. The results of preliminary clinical trials demonstrate the feasibility of our prototype. There are no such similar products available in the market.