IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol.
6, Issue 02, 2018 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613
Smart Mobile Monitoring System for Pregnancy Care using Body
Sensors
Ganeshwari D.1 Harine R.2 Harsheni G. S.3 Abirami S.4
1,2,3
UG Student 4Assistant Professor
1,2,3,4
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering
1,2,3,4
Valliammai Engineering College, India
Abstract— The most common problems faced by the women
during pregnancy is the hypertensive disorders. They cause
about 10% of the maternal deaths. Although the world
morality rate has decreased, women are still dying every day
from pregnancy complications. In many rural areas, pregnant
women are not conscious about the balanced nutrition diet
and their health care. Timely medical attention is important
to prevent health complications and ensure that the babies
develop properly. Various technical resources are being used
in order to reduce the death of both mother and babies. Mobile
devices with internet access have great potential to expand
the action of health professionals. These devices facilitate
people living in rural areas, assisting in patient monitoring
services. Information exchange anywhere and anytime
between the health professionals and patients could be an
important way to improve the pregnancy monitoring. Our
project presents a pregnancy monitoring system using body
sensors to identify worsens in the health status of pregnant
women and seek remedial measures accordingly.
Key words: Hypertensive Disorders; Pregnancy; Mobile
Devices; Patient Monitoring
I. INTRODUCTION
This paper presents a working model which incorporates
sensors to measure all the parameters like Body Temperature,
Blood Pressure, Heart Beat and Muscular activity of the
Pregnant Women and send it to the doctor so that the patient
condition can be monitored from anywhere[1].Thus, it
reduces the work load of the doctor and also gives more
accurate results, whenever there is an abnormality felt by the
patient.The device can be operated for patient monitoring
from anywhere by exchanging SMS messages with the
remote mobile device [2]. Internet of Things (IoT) is a
concept in which the devices used daily by people are
equipped with sensors capable of capturing the aspects of real
world such as temperature, blood pressure, heart beat rate,
muscular activity values etc., and send data to a repository to
receive this information and then use them in a smart way [3].
Therefore, the data which is obtained from this IoT-based
system is thus used to provide support to emergency medical
services. Also, a dedicated application software is required to
manage the flow of SMS messages at the time of emergency.
This research is based on the notion that physical distance
between pregnant women and health care services should not
be a limiting factor to the quality of health care they receive
[4]. Generally, pregnant women and the babies are
exceptionally susceptible to medical emergencies during the
first 500 days of life which refers to the time between the
consumption and about 6 months after delivery [5]. The Fetal
Electromyogram (FEMG), which is a portion of the EMG, is
a sign that produces the muscular activity of the abdomen of
the mother [6]. The main objective of this project is to design
a system that can acquire and transfer important biometric
data about the health status of pregnant women to a database,
draw inferences based on the information, and assist the
health professionals in providing health care for pregnant
ladies[7].
II. EXISTING SYSTEM
Although the currently existing system allows continuous
monitoring of the patient’s health status, these systems
depends on the sensors to be placed bedside monitors and as
a result this limits the patient to her bed. In most cases, health
monitoring will be done by infrastructure oriented wireless
networks such as commercial cellular/3g networks or
wireless LANs. These systems do not limit the patient to her
bed and allow her to move around freely but requires being
within a specific distance from the bedside monitor [8]. Also,
the coverage of such networks changes with time or location.
Sometimes the coverage of wireless networks is not at all
available or the coverage is available but we will not be able
to access to the network due to lack of available bandwidth
[9]. Therefore, with these problems and restrictions
continuous health monitoring is not possible and the
emergency signals may not be transmitted from the patient to
the health care providers. Hence under these conditions we
cannot reach to continuous health monitoring of the pregnant
women and thus it becomes difficult to help them out in
emergency situations [10]. These are the few disadvantages
of the related existing systems.
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM
In the proposed system, the physiological signals of the
patient are acquired by the sensors attached on her body. They
are then transmitted to the remote base-station and also a PC
for storing and analysing. Cloud computing is also used in
this system for the purpose of storing the data. The system
consists of an EMG (Electromyography)sensor whichis
an electro-diagnostic medicine technique for evaluating and
recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal
muscleswhich in turn is used to detect the muscular activity
in the abdomen of the pregnant women.The prototype
consists of the sensors connected to the microcontroller.
These systems do not require the patient to be limited to his
bed and allow him to move around, that is without any
limitation to the distance. This adds the advantages of
mobility. There is no need for a doctor to visit the patient
periodically. This assures continuous health monitoring of the
pregnant women. In case of any abnormality, a message is
sent to the ambulance along with the current location of the
patient.
A. Block Diagram
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Fig. 1: Block Diagram of the Proposed System
The Temperature, Blood Pressure and Heart Beat of the
pregnant women are continuously measured by the
Temperature, Blood Pressure and Heart Beat sensors
respectively. The EMG sensor is used in order to monitor the
muscular activity (contraction & relaxation) in the abdomen
of the pregnant women. The muscular contraction and
relaxation in the abdomen caused due to the movements of
the foetus sends out rays, which in turn leads to muscular
activities. This is measured by the electromyogram and the
corresponding waveform is produced as the output. These
inputs are given to the MCP3008 analog to digital converter
which converts the analog inputs to digital outputs. The
raspberry pi-3 used here consists of many in-built modules
and provisions like Wi-Fi, general purpose input/output pins,
slot for memory card etc. These input signals are transmitted
with the help of UART which enables asynchronous
communication. At the time of emergency, that is, when the
input signals exceeds the given threshold value, an alert
message will be sent to the husband and the doctor and also
the current location of the patient will be sent to the
ambulance. Hence, this ensures continuous health monitoring
of the pregnant women.
B. Tools Required
1) Blood Pressure Sensor
It is a non-invasive sensor which is used to measure the blood
pressure of humans.
2) Heart Beat Sensor
This heart beat sensor is designed to give a digital output of
the heart beat when a finger is placed on it.
3) Temperature Sensor
It is an electronic device which provides a voltage analogue
of the temperature of the surface on which it is mounted.
Smart Mobile Monitoring System for Pregnancy Care using Body Sensors
(IJSRD/Vol. 6/Issue 02/2018/309)
4) EMG Sensor
EMG is an electro-diagnostic medicine technique for
evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced
by skeletal muscles.
5) MCP3008
It is a microcontroller which acts as an ADC (Analog to
Digital Converter).
6) Uart
It is a computer component that handles asynchronous serial
communication. Every computer contains a UART to
manage the serial ports.
7) Raspberry PI 3
The RaspberryPi is a credit-card-sized computer. It can
function as a proper desktop computer or be used to build
smart devices.
8) GSM
It is used to describe the protocols for
digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as
tablets etc.
9) GPS
It is made up of satellites, ground stations, and
receivers. Once the receiver calculates its distance from four
or more satellites, it knows exactly where you are.
IV. METHODOLOGY
By using the Internet of things (IoT) technique we are going
to represent the total health and safety monitoring of pregnant
women. IoT is a concept where the devices that are used daily
are equipped with sensors that are capable of capturing the
aspects of real world such as temperature, pressure, humidity
and send those data to a repository to receive the above
mentioned information of the patient and use them smartly.
The system consists of Heart Beat sensor, Blood Pressure
sensor, Temperature sensor and EMG sensor. The report of
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the patient mainly consists of details of the Heart rate, Blood
Pressure, Temperature and Muscular Activity. The Heart rate
ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute and Blood pressure is
expressed in two numbers, such as 120/80. A normal body
temperature is 98.60F (370C). If Heartbeat, BP, Muscular
contraction and Temperature is more or less than the given
parameter, then it will be indicated with the LED and alarm,
and that report will be sent to the doctor as well as to guardian
(husband).The doctor will study the report and send the
required prescription through transceiver IoT to patient. At
the same time, the current location of the patient will also be
sent to the ambulance service through the GPS system. The
above achieved result demonstrates the proposed system and
at the same time, it also provides remote patient monitoring
and immediate handling of emergency cases. This system
provides a mobile solution for high-risk pregnancy
monitoring using sensor networks. This application alerts the
health professional about any change in hypertension
condition during pregnancy.
Fig. 2: Sample Output of Temperature Sensor
Fig. 3: Sample Output of Blood Pressure Sensor
Fig. 4: Prototype Image of the Proposed System
Smart Mobile Monitoring System for Pregnancy Care using Body Sensors
(IJSRD/Vol. 6/Issue 02/2018/309)
V. EXPECTED RESULTS
This system provides a cheap, affordable, reliable and
efficient smart health monitoring system. In case of
abnormality, immediately a request for the ambulance by
giving the exact location of the patient taken through GPS
will be sent. Also, the report will be sent to the doctor as well
to the husband. The doctor will study the report and send the
required prescription through transceiver IoT to the patient.
As this system is a wireless system, it does not require the
patient to remain in a particular place or location, allowing
the patient to go anywhere without any limitations. The main
result that would be obtained is that during the case of
emergency, the current location of the pregnant woman
would be sent to the ambulance directly. If there is any change
in the health condition of the patient that is during any critical
condition an alert message will be sent to the doctor,
ambulance and the husband. The doctor will study the report
of the patient that is sent through the IoT and responds by
sending the required prescription needed at that condition. As
this system is compact and designed easily, there is no need
of spending more money for buying it. The accuracy of the
system shows a good performance. It displays the percentage
of the results that are correctly identified. Thus, more accurate
the measurement process, closest is the result of the real value
measurement. The implementation is based on the frame
work of a real-time telemedicine. This system integrates
different sensors for monitoring the pregnant women from
rural area during critical conditions. It avoids early infant
death or handicapped infant delivery because of malnutrition
by providing proper precaution in regular time intervals.
VI. CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that this system is to develop a cheap,
affordable, reliable and efficient smart health monitoring
system. The system is based on a full time monitoring on
patient’s condition along with an emergency rescue
mechanism using SMS. The whole concept is about the
hardware implementation and software implementation. The
system generates an output that is the report of the pregnant
women and sent to both the doctor as well to the guardian
(husband).The doctor will study the report and send the
required prescription through transceiver IoT to the patient.
At the same time, if there is any abnormality the current
location of the patient will also be sent to the ambulance
service through the GPS system which inturn provides safety
by connecting pregnant women with the family members and
relatives all the time. So, this module efficiently helps the
pregnant women to avoid miscarriage and take healthy diet as
suggested by the doctor so that she can give birth to a healthy
baby without complications. Using IoT we will be able to
transfer the information at the earliest stage. Also, it becomes
compact and wearable after it is converted into a product. The
doctor can continuously monitor the patient condition
effectively.
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