Fetal Wellbeing
Measuring the stress level of your baby – in real time, at home For mothers and families
Stress is part of our everyday life.
Stress affects both the mind and the body. A little bit of stress is good and can help us perform daily activities. Too much stress can cause physical and mental health problems.
This is true not only for the adults. Stress also affects children. And stress has an impact from the day of conception. Already from the 1st day of the human being, starting to grow in the mother’s belly.
The way we respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to our overall well-being.
Prenatal stress (PS) during pregnancy affects child brain-development already during pregnancy.
While numerous studies are ongoing, we don’t completely understand how stress affects pregnancy. However, stress can increase the chances of having a baby who is preterm (born before 37 weeks of pregnancy) or having a low-birthweight baby (weighing less than 2,5kg or 5 pounds, 8 ounces). Babies born too soon or too small are at increased risk for health problems.
Studies have shown that high levels of stress in pregnancy may cause certain problems during childhood, such as trouble paying attention or other mental health conditions. It’s possible that stress also may affect your baby’s brain development or immune system.
Infants whose mothers experienced high levels of stress while pregnant, particularly in the first trimester, show signs of more depression and irritability. In the womb, they also are slower to "habituate" or tune out repeated stimuli -- a skill that, in infants, is an important predictor of IQ.
While numerous studies are ongoing, we don’t completely understand how stress affects pregnancy. However, stress can increase the chances of having a baby who is preterm (born before 37 weeks of pregnancy) or having a low-birthweight baby (weighing less than 2,5kg or 5 pounds, 8 ounces). Babies born too soon or too small are at increased risk for health problems.
Studies have shown that high levels of stress in pregnancy may cause certain problems during childhood, such as trouble paying attention or other mental health conditions. It’s possible that stress also may affect your baby’s brain development or immune system.
Infants whose mothers experienced high levels of stress while pregnant, particularly in the first trimester, show signs of more depression and irritability. In the womb, they also are slower to "habituate" or tune out repeated stimuli -- a skill that, in infants, is an important predictor of IQ.
Moreover, maternal and fetal stress are not always in line with each other.
While mothers can be relaxed, their baby might feel stress. For example, smoking has a direct effect on the fetal heart function. The fetal heart rate variability shows a pattern during smoking which is a typical sign of stress.
Features
Our Fetal Wellbeing device can show the current stress level of the fetus.
You can constantly monitor the fetal - and also your own - stress level.
... as well as receive advice on how to reduce stress.
How does it worK?
Non-invasive
Data is collected with an electrode patch put on the mother’ abdomen. No cables.
Simple
You put the patches on, start the device and data is on your phone
Data on your smartphone
You can track the stress level of yourself and stress level of your baby on your smartphone.
Let’s keep in touch
Here you can add additional text to display next to the custom form. You can add information about the form and add specific notes when filling out the form. Here you can add additional text to display next to the custom form. You can add information about the form and add specific notes when filling out the form.
References
[1] References:
Lobmaier, S.M., Müller, A., Zelgert, C. et al. Fetal heart rate variability responsiveness to maternal stress, non-invasively detected from maternal transabdominal ECG. Arch Gynecol Obstet 301, 405–414 (2020).
Zimmermann, P., Antonelli, M.C., Sharma, R. et al. Prenatal stress perturbs fetal iron homeostasis in a sex specific manner. Sci Rep 12, 9341 (2022).
Ahsan H. Khandoker, Faezeh Marzbanrad, Andreas Voss, Steffen Schulz, Yoshitaka Kimura, Miyuki Endo, Marimuthu Palaniswami. Analysis of maternal–fetal heart rate coupling directions with partial directed coherence. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, Volume 30, 2016, Pages 25-30
[2] Kyle S. Wiley et al. Maternal distress, DNA methylation, and fetal programing of stress physiology in Brazilian mother–infant pairs. Dev Psychobiol. 2023 Jan;65(1):e22352.
István Péterfi, Lóránd Kellényi, Lehel Péterfi & András Szilágyi (2017): The short-term effect of smoking on fetal ECG, The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, DOI: 10.1080/14767058.2017.1390560
[3] István Péterfi, Lóránd Kellényi, Lehel Péterfi & András Szilágyi (2017): The short-term effect of smoking on fetal ECG, The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, DOI: 10.1080/14767058.2017.1390560
Lobmaier, S.M., Müller, A., Zelgert, C. et al. Fetal heart rate variability responsiveness to maternal stress, non-invasively detected from maternal transabdominal ECG. Arch Gynecol Obstet 301, 405–414 (2020).
Zimmermann, P., Antonelli, M.C., Sharma, R. et al. Prenatal stress perturbs fetal iron homeostasis in a sex specific manner. Sci Rep 12, 9341 (2022).
Ahsan H. Khandoker, Faezeh Marzbanrad, Andreas Voss, Steffen Schulz, Yoshitaka Kimura, Miyuki Endo, Marimuthu Palaniswami. Analysis of maternal–fetal heart rate coupling directions with partial directed coherence. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, Volume 30, 2016, Pages 25-30
[2] Kyle S. Wiley et al. Maternal distress, DNA methylation, and fetal programing of stress physiology in Brazilian mother–infant pairs. Dev Psychobiol. 2023 Jan;65(1):e22352.
István Péterfi, Lóránd Kellényi, Lehel Péterfi & András Szilágyi (2017): The short-term effect of smoking on fetal ECG, The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, DOI: 10.1080/14767058.2017.1390560
[3] István Péterfi, Lóránd Kellényi, Lehel Péterfi & András Szilágyi (2017): The short-term effect of smoking on fetal ECG, The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, DOI: 10.1080/14767058.2017.1390560
Disclaimer
This product is still under development process and may still shift in the course of carrying out the project. It is not available yet. All information within emails you may receive from IT-MEDicne or this website are provided for information purpose only. All information, data, photos, videos contained in emails you may receive from IT-MEDicine or this website are non-contractual and proprietary information.
FetalWellbeing is NOT a medical device. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition. It does not have FDA or medCE approval.
FetalWellbeing is to be used by healthy adults in a stable environment and is only meant to inform you about your and your fetus’ overall wellbeing. No medical advice can be concluded from the data presented, and it cannot replace the services of health care professionals. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of the measurements by FetalWellbeing.
FetalWellbeing is NOT a medical device. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition. It does not have FDA or medCE approval.
FetalWellbeing is to be used by healthy adults in a stable environment and is only meant to inform you about your and your fetus’ overall wellbeing. No medical advice can be concluded from the data presented, and it cannot replace the services of health care professionals. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of the measurements by FetalWellbeing.