Recording fetal breathing movements with a passive transducer based on an inductive principle

A new transducer has been developed, based on an inductive principle, for recording fetal movements and sounds. The compliance of this transducer, the INductive PHOno-sensor (INPHO), can be matched to that of the maternal abdomen to provide an optimal transfer of displacement between maternal abdomen and transducer. In this manner, it is possible to detect fetal breathing movements by digital filtering of the INPHO signal in a frequency band between 0.5 and 2.0 Hz. Singular breathing movements can be detected and this was verified by real time ultrasound imaging. The INPHO transducer shows a flat (+/- 1.5 dB) frequency response between 0.2 and 200 Hz. The signal-to-noise ratio of the transducer system is better than 95 dB, and enables very weak movements and sounds to be detected. Spectral analysis of the processed signal shows that modulation of fetal breathing by maternal breathing takes place. The measuring setup allows for the quantitative assessment of fetal respiratory sinus arrhythmia.