Labour Monitoring in Pregnant Women Using Phonocardiography, Electrocardiography and Electromyography Technique

Abstract

Continuous monitoring of fetal and maternal vital signs, particularly during labor, can be critical for the child and mother's health. We present a novel wearable electronic system that measures, in real-time, maternal heart rate using phonocardiography (PCG) and Electrocardiography (ECG). Uterine contractions using electromyography (EMG). When in later stages we employed ECG technique for maternal heart rate monitoring. The heart rate is determined using moving average filters to remove noises in the signal and ACF(Autocorrelation Function) for determining periodicity. For UC monitoring we stick to the same EMG technique. We also tried employing EMG technique to monitor the Fetal Heart Rate(FHR). But, in later stages of this design, this idea was aborted as we concluded that it needs further research on pregnancy stages and would require more intricate sensor integration that might not be in our reach at the moment. The system is accurate, low-cost, and portable, so it can be deployed at primary healthcare centers in low-income countries. The system can also be used by women in the comfort of their homes. At the same time, the data collected is transferred to their doctor for analysis and diagnosis, which can bring a revolutionary change in the continuous monitoring of fetal wellbeing during labor.