Scientists create wearable ultrasound to continuously monitor babies in womb

Team hope the UPatch – at present a proof-of-concept device – will aid early detection of complications and prevent stillbirths

Scientists have created a wearable ultrasound patch that can continuously monitor babies in the womb, with the hope that such devices could aid the early detection of complications during pregnancy.

The team behind the work say ultrasound-based techniques in place now have drawbacks: continuous monitoring of the baby’s heart rate and contractions of the womb using current methods leads to a high rate of false alarms, while the use of more conventional handheld devices for imaging is limited to a small number of scans during pregnancy, and must be carried out by a skilled operator.