The design of a portable fetal heart rate and uterine contraction monitor

A new portable fetal heart rate (FHR) and uterine contraction (UC) monitor has been developed. The system is portable, light weight, small size, battery powered. It provides a predetermined "long-term" monitoring, and stores abnormal data. Only one 9 V commercial battery is used for the whole system, so it could be used safely by the high risk pregnant woman to monitor the abnormal FHR and UT activities, when she is not in the hospital. When the microprocessor-based system detects a predetermined "long-term" abnormal activity, it can activate the appropriate alarm to advise the pregnant woman to go to hospital as soon as possible. The abnormal data from the monitor are not transmitted to the hospital's personal computer till the pregnant woman receives medical treatment. A PC-based software to display the long-term abnormal FHR and UT data from the portable monitor by using window figures or graphs has also been provided, and these figures could help clinical doctors make diagnoses.