{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]],"date-time":"2026-01-21T04:27:34Z","timestamp":1768969654275,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,24]],"date-time":"2020-12-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1608768000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Daily fetal movement counting based on maternal perception is widely deployed to monitor fetal wellbeing. However, the counting performed by the mother is prone to errors for various reasons. There are limited devices on the market that can provide reliable and automatic counting. This paper presents a prototype of a novel fetal movement monitoring device based on fibre Bragg grating sensors. Deformation of the skin caused by a fetal movement can lead to a change of the strain and stress on the optical fibre sensors, therefore can induce distortions to the breathing pattern of the mother. In the study data was gathered by the sensors through strain measurement and was post-processed using independent component analysis (ICA) and high-pass filtering to show the instances of the fetal movements. Information gathered during user trials with the prototype suggests that the system detects significantly higher numbers of fetus movements than that observed based on the mother\u2019s perception. Among the various techniques available for fetal movement monitoring, fibre optic sensing provides many advantages including multiplex capability, flexibility and minimal size, making the concept an attractive solution for reliable monitoring of antenatal fetal movements.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21010048","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,24]],"date-time":"2020-12-24T09:02:44Z","timestamp":1608800564000},"page":"48","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Fetal Movement Counting Using Optical Fibre Sensors"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Chalani L.","family":"Abeywardena","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8PR, UK"},{"name":"Optics and Photonics Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Frederique J.","family":"Vanheusden","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8PR, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5794-7324","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kate F.","family":"Walker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8762-6003","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Richard","family":"Arm","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8PR, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Qimei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8PR, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e98","DOI":"10.1016\/S2214-109X(15)00275-2","article-title":"National, regional, and worldwide estimates of stillbirth rates in 2015, with trends from 2000: A systematic analysis","volume":"4","author":"Blencowe","year":"2016","journal-title":"Lancet Glob. 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