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Anushka T- Labour Monitoring in Pregnancy

Anushka Tiwari  received her Master of Science in  Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE). Her research work was supervised by Dr. Aftab Hussain. Here’s a summary of her research work on Labour Monitoring in Pregnant Women using Phonocardiography, Electrocardiography and Electromyography technique:

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) and fetal heart rate and uterine contractions using electromyography (EMG). Using two different physical phenomena (sound and electrical impulses) reduces signal interference. The heart rate is determined by sampling for 6 seconds at 500Hz, using an autocorrelation algorithm, while uterine contractions are determined by sampling with the same rate and obtaining the duration and interval of contractions using thresholding. We calibrated the algorithms against known frequency sounds to determine an error correction factor. The resulting system can identify signal frequencies with an accuracy of ±5%. 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 well-being during labor.

Technological growth is achieving new peaks in today’s era, especially in medical sciences. We will discuss the technologies used in health monitoring for pregnant women. Today, for fetal and maternal health monitoring, women have to go through long, tedious and not-so-healthy ways regarding regular checkups during pregnancy. These methods are either invasive or not restorative for long-term fetal health monitoring or costly enough that a middle-class woman cannot afford them. Even though good research is going on in this field to make the process easier, cheaper and safer, researchers have not achieved all three mentioned factors and good efficiency. Another major factor to consider is the portability of the system. Pregnancy is not easy for any woman, so going to the hospital to get a checkup often becomes challenging. It is about time to check on the baby in real-time while sitting comfortably at her home.

Index Terms —Labor monitoring, fetal heart rate, uterine contraction, phonocardiography, electromyography and electrocardiography

March 2023