Introduction
Pregnancy and birth are among the most dangerous days in your life. Stillbirth tragically ends 3 million pregnancies globally every year whilst fetal asphyxia inflicted by labour is a leading cause of neonatal seizures, cerebral palsy and death. Unfortunately, current measures of fetal wellbeing during pregnancy and direct measures of fetal distress during labour are intermittent and often miss the critical point when a life-saving birth could be performed. Excitingly we are developing two devices to continuously measure markers of fetal distress in pregnancy and directly measure markers of fetal distress during labour.
Methods
With a team of electronic, material and chemical engineers and physicists we are using novel flexible electronics and a suite of original algorithms to develop a device to detect markers of fetal well-being non-invasively in pregnancy. Furthermore, utilising cutting edge fibre optic and sensor technology we are developing a device to accurately measure direct markers of fetal distress during labour.
Results
We have developed a suite of algorithms to extract the fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) and have found they more reliably extract the fetal heart rate at 84% of the time compared to traditional algorithms which only extract the fetal heart rate 40% of the time.
We have optimized the physics and chemistry of our sensor and demonstrated it accurately detects a marker of fetal distress in buffers. We have promising data showing it accurately detects markers of fetal distress in biological samples. Currently we are developing an application device and will assess its accuracy in a fetal sheep hypoxia model.
Conclusion
We are developing technology to continuously assess fetal well-being in pregnancy and labour. These devices have the potential to detect fetal distress and subsequently reduce stillbirth and hypoxic complications of labour.