Performance Evaluation of an IoT Based Fetal Heart Monitoring Device

An important indicator to know the condition of fetal well-being is the fetal heart rate. The fetal heart rate variability signals during pregnancy is a biological index that must be well monitored, so as to assess the fetal well-being. This paper focuses on developing an IoT-based fetal heart monitoring device, there is accurate conformity between the newly developed device and the existing electronic stethoscope with <10% variation. The device was tested initially on the heart rate of an adult, the result was compared with the result obtained from using an exiting Doppler fetal monitor. From the result, it can be deduced that the relationship between the developed device and the standards used is linear. The device was then tested on pregnant women for detecting the heart rate of the fetus, the heart rate was monitored to determine the beats per minute. Hence, the result shows that the IoT-based monitoring device can detect the fetal heart rate as from 30 weeks upward (Third trimester).