Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a soft, wearable ultrasound patch that can continuously monitor a fetus for hours at a time—and it can do so consistently even as the fetus and umbilical cord constantly move during pregnancy.
The technology could help doctors detect complications earlier in high-risk pregnancies.
In one case during clinical testing, the patch detected prolonged abnormal fetal signals that prompted medical intervention through an early Cesarean delivery, which researchers say may have helped save the baby's life.
The technology could also expand access to prenatal care in low-resource settings, where skilled ultrasound technicians and continuous, long-term monitoring are often limited or unavailable.
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