THE FEASIBILITY OF LONG-TERM FETAL HEART-RATE MONITORING IN THE HOME-ENVIRONMENT USING MATERNAL ABDOMINAL ELECTRODES

It is well established that fetal and maternal electrocardiograms (ECG s) can be obtained from the maternal abdomen using standard surface el ectrodes, although this cannot be guaranteed. The unobtrusive and non- invasive nature of such monitoring lends itself naturally to the long- term ambulatory collection of this data on cardiac activity. By employ ing suitable algorithms it would then be possible to extract records o f both fetal and maternal heart rate. This article presents results of the collection of raw electrophysiological signals, containing both f etal and maternal ECGs from a single volunteer from the 20th week of g estation until term. The significance of the data is that they were re corded by the mother herself in her own environment. Previously writte n software was then used to extract fetal and maternal heart rate data . These results demonstrate the feasibility of using this method for t he long-term recording of fetal and maternal heart rate in the mother' s normal surroundings.