Force sensor leads to safer labour and delivery
A
HBM UK product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Nov 13, 2000
A sensor developed by HBM UK is part of a system which measures the contractions of the uterus, helping doctors and midwives pick up health problems early, leading to safer labour and delivery
Improved health for unborn babies is the major benefit of a sensor developed by HBM UK, specialist sensor division.
The sensor is part of a system, which measures the contractions of the uterus, thereby helping doctors and midwives pick up health problems early, leading to a better, safer labour and delivery.
Measuring uterine contractions is one of the major methods used to investigate the health of foetuses.
From the frequency, magnitude and duration of the contractions, the doctor can predict the time of the baby's birth.
In some cases, uterine contractions start too early, bringing a risk of losing the baby.
For example, the birth may take place after 20 weeks of pregnancy instead of the normal 40 weeks.
This is extremely dangerous for the health of the baby.
To avoid a premature birth, doctors will give the woman drugs to stop the uterine contractions, the dosage of which will depend on the magnitude of the contractions measured by the sensor.
The sensor, which is placed on the patient's abdomen, will normally be used a few days or hours before the birth is expected, if the woman has experienced problems earlier in the pregnancy.
During a contraction, the woman's uterine muscle exerts pressure on the abdominal wall.
This pressure can be detected by a metal spring developed by HBM, forming part of the sensor.
The sensor works on the strain gauge principle.
As force is applied to the spring, the spring is deflected.
Strain gauges attached to the surface of the spring transform the change in strain into a change of resistance.
As this change is very small (0.1%), four strain gauges are connected to a Wheatstone bridge which transforms the change of resistance into a change of voltage.
This voltage change is sent to the signal conditioning system of the medical equipment.
The basic sensor (spring with strain gauges) is fixed on a platform, mounted in a housing with a rubber diaphragm.
One benefit of this system is that it is very robust, because of integrated overload protection in the mounting platform.
Another advantage is that it is temperature compensated and has a high long-term stability.
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