The Fit4Labour app: Technology Evaluation and Proof of Concept

Research summary

During labour, contractions of the womb squeeze the blood vessels that supply the placenta and decrease the amount of oxygen that reaches the baby. Whilst most babies cope well, a small percentage are at risk of having low levels of oxygen which can have harmful effects, such as brain damage or even death. That is why midwives and doctors monitor babies’ health during labour, most frequently using a cardiotocogram (CTG) – continuous graphs displaying the womb's contractions and the baby's heart rate ― to identify early signs that baby is struggling and help the baby by performing a caesarean section or assisted delivery. However, CTG patterns are often complex, subjective and difficult to interpret by eye. The Fit4Labour app was developed to help doctors and midwifes with CTG traces interpretation and support clinical decisions. The Fit4Labour app was created by combining the mothers’ medical history with powerful computer analysis of CTG traces and outcomes from more than 60,000 births. The app analyses the CTG traces with intelligent computer-based methods and provides an estimation of how well the baby is likely to cope with labour. The Fit4Labour app can run on a tablet and collect data wirelessly (without cables) during labour from standard CTG monitors in real-time and provide a report after 60 minutes. Initial testing with a database of previously collected CTG in Oxford was very encouraging. The Fit4Labour app correctly identified most cases where babies had complications during labour. The purpose of this ‘proof-of-concept’ study is to test the Fit4Labour app in clinical setting by recording an analysing CTG in ‘real-time’ in 100 patients and gain feedback from participants and clinical team.

Principal Investigator

Prof Lawrence W M Impey

Contact us

Email: osprea@wrh.ox.ac.uk

IRAS number

292221