Diagnostic value of fetal movement counting by mother and the optimal recording duration

Novel non-invasive in-house fabricated wearable system with a hybrid algorithm for fetal movement recognition

Fetal movement count monitoring is one of the most commonly used methods of assessing fetal well-being. While few methods are available to monitor fetal movements, they consist of several adverse qualities such as unreliability as well as the inability to be conducted in a non-clinical setting. Therefore, this research was conducted to design a complete system that will enable pregnant mothers to monitor fetal movement at home. This system consists of a non-invasive, non-transmitting sensor unit that can be fabricated at a low cost. An accelerometer was utilized as the primary sensor and a micro-controller based circuit was implemented. Clinical testing was conducted utilizing this sensor unit. Two phases of clinical testing procedures were done and during the first phase readings from 120 mothers were taken while during the second phase readings from 15 mothers were taken. Validation was done by conducting an abdominal ultrasound scan which was utilized as the ground truth during the second phase of the clinical testing procedure. A clinical survey was also conducted in parallel with clinical testings in order to improve the sensor unit as well as to improve the final system. Four different signal processing algorithms were implemented on the data set and the performance of each was compared with each other. Out of the four algorithms three algorithms were able to obtain a true positive rate around 85%. However, the best algorithm was selected on the basis of minimizing the false positive rate. Consequently, the most feasible as well as the best performing algorithm was determined and it was utilized in the final system. This algorithm have a true positive rate of 86% and a false positive rate of 7% Furthermore, a mobile application was also developed to be used with the sensor unit by pregnant mothers. Finally, a complete end to end method to monitor fetal movement in a non-clinical setting was presented by the proposed system.

Fetal Movement Counting Using Optical Fibre Sensors

Daily fetal movement counting based on maternal perception is widely deployed to monitor fetal wellbeing. However, the counting performed by the mother is prone to errors for various reasons. There are limited devices on the market that can provide reliable and automatic counting. This paper presents a prototype of a novel fetal movement monitoring device based on fibre Bragg grating sensors. Deformation of the skin caused by a fetal movement can lead to a change of the strain and stress on the optical fibre sensors, therefore can induce distortions to the breathing pattern of the mother. In the study data was gathered by the sensors through strain measurement and was post-processed using independent component analysis (ICA) and high-pass filtering to show the instances of the fetal movements. Information gathered during user trials with the prototype suggests that the system detects significantly higher numbers of fetus movements than that observed based on the mother's perception. Among the various techniques available for fetal movement monitoring, fibre optic sensing provides many advantages including multiplex capability, flexibility and minimal size, making the concept an attractive solution for reliable monitoring of antenatal fetal movements.

The Effects of Fetal Movement Counting on Pregnancy Outcomes

INTRODUCTION

Counting fetal movements may lead to timely assess fetal health and prevent the adverse effects of pregnancy.

AIM

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of fetal movement counting on pregnancy outcomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In a randomized controlled trial, 208 women with singleton pregnancy were randomly divided into two groups of fetal movement counting and control. Pregnancy outcomes were compared between the two groups. Data were analysed with SPSS and p<0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference in the mean maternal concern (p=0.36), admission to hospital due to the decreased fetal movements (p=0.99), birth weight (p=0.21), Apgar score (p=0.51), the mean of gestational age at the time of decreased fetal movements (p=0.49) and mode of delivery (p=0.69) between the two groups. There were no cases of premature labour, intrauterine growth retardation and fetal death in the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Pregnancy outcome was similar in the two groups of fetal movement counting and control. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effect of fetal movement counting on the major outcomes of pregnancy such as intrauterine fetal death.