Intelligent Toco-tonometry with Real Time Respiration Monitoring

Aiming at the enhancement of monitoring system for pregnant patients, an appropriate device is needed to monitor the maternal health during labour. A new method for non-invasive monitoring of respiration and uterine contraction activity of pregnant woman is described in this paper. A prolonged inspiration or shortness of breath occurs during initiation of labour associated with elevated uterine contraction is used as an objective for this project. The system is light weight, portable and smaller in size. It can be used safely by the pregnant women to monitor the foetus condition, abnormal uterine contraction activity and its associated respiration when she is not in hospital. When the uterine contraction (UC) monitors and respiration monitor detects any abnormal activities, it can activate the appropriate alarm to alert the pregnant woman to go to hospital as soon as possible. The output from both the monitors has been given to PIC16F877A microcontroller and then it is interfaced with LABVIEW software. The corresponding output has been viewed and recorded using VI LABVIEW INTERFACE. This device can also be used in small hospitals and government hospitals because of its cost effectiveness.