MOON feasibility study

This study aims to help us understand how modern sensing technologies might be used in future research to monitor pregnancies remotely and to pick up early signs of pregnancy complications. We currently assess pregnancy health using one-off blood and urine tests, blood pressure measurements, and ultrasound scans, and by asking pregnant people to monitor the pattern of their baby’s movements. Although these strategies provide important information, they do not always predict which pregnancies are most at risk of complications.

Digital devices which can monitor health are widely used and becoming increasingly advanced. Such devices include sensors that can be placed under a person’s mattress to detect continuous signals like heart rate and breathing movements during sleep. These have not yet been used by people who are pregnant, so we don’t yet know whether they can also detect a baby’s movements inside the womb.

We want to find out whether it is feasible for these under-mattress sensors to be used during pregnancy and to gather information on what the signals collected from pregnant people look like. The MOON feasibility study is focussed on whether the sensors can gather high-quality information, and on understanding how the presence of baby movements affects the recorded signals. We will not be collecting any information about your medical background, or any details about your current (or any previous) pregnancy and birth.

We hope that information from the MOON feasibility study will help us to design future research studies investigating whether under-mattress sensors can be used to detect early signs of pregnancy complications.