Monitoring the Progress of Pregnancy and Detecting Labor Using Uterine Electromyography

Abstract

In respect to the main goal of our ongoing work of detecting preterm birth, we investigate in this paper whether pregnancy can be successfully monitored and labor can be accurately predicted using transabdominal uterine electromyography. We observed the evolution of some extracted features from data recorded on eleven women at different increasing pregnancy terms. Additionally, we compared the values of these features for two different classes of contractions (pregnancy, labor). The results obtained from the recorded data indicate first, that the values of the extracted features exhibit a longitudinal evolution along gestation, and second, there are measurable differences in the features values between the two studied classes (pregnancy, labor). Therefore, the analysis of uterine electrical activity can be very promising for monitoring pregnancy and detecting labor and may help identify preterm labor.