A research team from University College Dublin have been awarded funding for a project aimed at dramatically reduce stillbirths. The expert group – comprised of biomedical engineers and clinicians in UCD and Imperial College London – developed a wearable system that can detect movements in the womb at home, the University College writes in a press release.
A stillbirth occurs every sixteen seconds, and over fifty percent are associated with a reduction in movements in the womb.
The ‘FM monitor’ developed by Professor Niamh Nowlan, Principal Investigator, and collaborators from Imperial College London has the potential to identify fetuses at risk of stillbirth, as well as offering reassurance that a fetus is healthy, thereby decreasing the rates of unnecessary induction of labour and early delivery.
The FM monitor
“The funding will enable us to further develop our device by engaging with pregnant people and their midwives and doctors, by testing the monitor at home and in hospital, and, we believe, will lead to our device being adopted globally to reduce stillbirth rates worldwide,” says Professor Nowlan, from UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Senior Fellow at the UCD Conway Institute.
