Recording and processing of fetal movements and sounds obtained with the Inpho inductive transducer

A recently developed transducer based on an inductive principle allows recording of fetal displacement signals on the maternal abdominal wall. The transducer is a relatively passive device, in contrast to commonly applied ultrasound transducers. This permits long-term observation of fetal movements and sounds. The bandwidth of the system is DC-200 Hz (+/- 3 dB), and signal-to-noise ratios of more than 96 dB have been measured in a laboratory setup, whereas in the practical situation a signal-to-noise ratio of 78 dB has been established. The transducer has been applied to study fetal respiratory sinus arrhythmia, which means that fetal breathing movements have to be extracted from the transducer's output. This proved possible by digital filtering of the displacement signal as detected by the transducer. The transducer has also been applied in a study where the signal-to-noise ratio of fetal heart sounds as a function of location of the fetus and position of the transducer on the maternal abdominal wall has been studied. It proved possible to adequately record fetal heart sounds for measurement of fetal heart rate. Also uterine activity could be recorded using the sensor's DC output.