A fuzzy inference method-based fetal distress monitoring system

Fetal heart rate (FHR) and uterine pressure (UP) are two of the most important factors for obstetricians to diagnose in antenatal examination. Traditional manual monitoring process is time-consuming and labor-intensive. This paper proposes an efficient model to monitor fetal non-reassuring status. By simple operation, the recognized signals and non-reassuring information are used for judgement. In this system, the FHR and UP baselines are calculated by weighted average, and then heartbeat acceleration, heartbeat deceleration, uterine construction, heartbeat noise pattern, and uterine noise pattern can be easily recognized. The assay of non-reassuring fetal status is achieved by 23 fuzzy rules. When non-reassuring status is found, the alarm mechanism will be triggered for immediate treatment. For verification, a signal simulator is designed and the simulation results are presented for comparisons.