IP Requirements:
- Emory IP
Experience Requirements:
- Electrical Engineering
Problem Description
Fetal kick counting is a valuable at-home method for assessing fetal health and well-being. Typically, pregnant patients will track fetal movements by counting the number of kicks felt in any given period of time. Decreased fetal movement can be a sign of fetal distress, so patients are instructed by their obstetric providers to seek care in these instances. Although fetal kick counting is useful, it is prone to human error and subjective interpretation. A more objective measure of fetal movement can improve accuracy, ease, and reliability to better interpret fetal well-being from the comfort of a patient’s home.
There is currently no technology to monitor fetal movements in a more accurate manner than the traditional counting methods. At present, there are fetal Doppler monitors that patients can purchase to measure the fetal heart rate. However, this is subject to user error as the maternal heart rate can be easily picked up by the monitor instead and erroneously be interpreted as the fetal heart rate. The average patient using these devices at home may not understand how to distinguish between the maternal heart rate and the fetal heart rate very easily. A fetal movement monitor can be a tool that is easier to use and interpret among the general patient population.
A wearable fetal kick monitor has the potential to improve prenatal care and maternal well-being by providing a more accurate measure of fetal movement rather than relying on a patient’s ability to measure the movements subjectively. This is especially true after 34 weeks gestation when the movements are much more subtle. This monitor can be applied to patients starting at 23-24 weeks, which is after a patient starts to feel kicks and also when a pregnancy has reached viability (meaning that intervention and/or further evaluation for decreased fetal movement is warranted). This would impact patients by capturing those with pregnancies at risk of poor outcomes. It also can provide patients with reassurance about their pregnancies and more accurate information about when to seek further care.
