Life-saving baby heart rate monitors will be made available to hospitals, clinics and midwives across Africa as Phillips Africa – in partnership with South African non-profit organisation PowerFree Education Technology (PET) – begins developing and testing the low-cost electricity-free Wind-up Doppler Ultrasound Fetal Heart Rate Monitor.

The Wind-up Fetal Doppler is a handheld product created by PET that helps medical practitioners and midwives (particularly in rural and semi urban areas) to accurately count an unborn baby’s heart rate while the mother is in labour.

The monitor can pick up when the baby’s heart rate is too slow, which may indicate that the baby is not receiving enough oxygen and may suffer brain damage or die. Medical practitioners can then take the necessary actions to save the child.

The Phillips Innovation Hub will be tasked with further testing and development work on the Wind-up Fetal Doppler prototype before it’s released for general use across the continent.

According to PET, current fetal heart-rate monitors are either too expensive, too inaccurate or rely on replaceable batteries or electricity to run. In Uganda, 60% more cases of abnormal fetal heart rate were detected in labour through the use of earlier versions of the Wind-Up Fetal Doppler.

“It is very hard to do an accurate measurement with a Pinard-stethoscope, because you need to be able to hear the fetal heart well and count the rate correctly. It is often also uncomfortable for the mother,” said Anneke Jagau, a midwife working for PET. “A Doppler ultrasound fetal heart rate monitor is a good solution, but the current monitors on the market require mains or battery power, and are not robust enough.”

“We are very excited about the collaboration with Philips”, said Dr Francois Bonnici, Director of PET and Director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Cape Town, “We chose to work with Philips because of a strong alignment on the mission to improve people’s lives with meaningful innovation. As a market leader in healthcare, Philips will be able to make our innovation available and affordable for frontline health care workers across the African continent.”

[Source – Phillips via All Africa, Image – Phillips]