Pregnant women in Birmingham study monitor their baby's heart rate at home
Most home sessions gave a usable trace and anxiety scores fell. The researchers now want trials comparing home and hospital monitoring.
Women with high-risk pregnancies were able to record their baby's heart rate at home with a portable monitor in most of the sessions they attempted, according to a study from Birmingham Women's Hospital published on 6 November in the journal PLOS Digital Health.
The researchers, from the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, wanted to see whether home cardiotocography, usually called CTG, was practical. They approached 62 women and recruited 50 between 11 June 2025 and 19 February 2026. Each was expecting one baby, was at least 32 weeks pregnant and had at least one high-risk condition.
Participants were given a CE-marked portable CTG device and asked to use it for one hour a week at home, alongside their routine antenatal care, for up to six weeks or until their baby was born. Six left before their first session, and the remaining 44 completed 204 sessions between them.
The results
The main measure was whether a session produced 20 minutes of continuous monitoring that could be interpreted. That happened in 168 of the 204 sessions, or 82.4%.
Anxiety scores, measured on a standard questionnaire, fell from an average of 37.5 before the study to 31.6 after it. The device scored 77.6 on average for ease of use.
In 13 sessions (6.4%), involving 10 women, the reading led to advice to attend maternity triage. The team recorded none of the maternal or baby adverse outcomes it had set out to track in connection with using the device. When asked about a future pregnancy, 78% said they would be happy to monitor at home rather than travel to hospital.
The limits
The researchers describe it as a feasibility study. It was carried out at a single hospital, was modest in size and had no comparison group. Women with a BMI over 35, those who did not speak English, those expecting more than one baby and those whose baby had an anomaly were not included, so the results may not apply to everyone.
The authors say home CTG was feasible, acceptable and usable for this group, and call for further trials comparing it with hospital monitoring. The study was funded by Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital Charity.
