A simple noninvasive approach for fetal electrocardiogram extraction based on wavelet transform

To assess the health of a fetus during pregnancy, the fetal electrocardiogram signal is monitored. The signal is obtained by indirect or direct methods. Although direct method is more accurate, the former is medically accepted because it has no impact on the fetus and the mother. However, the quality of the obtained signal is very low; hence determination of the fetal heartbeats´ is hard and needs an expert. In this research, the maternal electrocardiogram signal as obtained non-invasive from the abdomen is used to extract the fetal heart signal using wavelet transform. The implementation of the method is simple and the results show that it is promising.