The Monitoring and Care (MONICA) system is sensitive to fetal and maternal heart rates, works well in obese mothers and reduces physician's time per patient.
India’s first wireless Fetal Monitoring System is set to revolutionize the healthcare facilities to pregnant women. The Monitoring and Care (MONICA) system is installed in Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, known as the Sion Hospital. This state-of-the-art product has been invented and developed by the University of Nottingham. Dr. Suleman Merchant, the dean of Sion Hosptal, said, "The Sion Hospital holds the record for conducting around 14,000 child deliveries a year. For the first time in the country, underprivileged mothers can avail the sophisticated MONICA, developed specially for us. It uses ECG-like leads placed on the expectant mother’s abdomen for live monitoring of fetal ECG, maternal heart rate and uterine contractions. Traditional transducer belts and connecting wires have been done away with completely. Since no belts are used, there is freedom for natural birthing positions, to move around and extra space around the bed for the clinician, thus enhancing the birthing experience. It is sensitive to fetal and maternal heart rates, without causing confusion between the two, works well in obese mothers and drastically reduces the clinician’s monitoring time per patient."
This system has been made available through a donation by Steel Chambers Charitable Foundation of India.
Source-Medindia