Neo-SENSE: a non-invasive smart sensing mattress for cardiac monitoring of babies

Within the first minute of life a newborn must take its first breath to make the transition from life inside the womb to the outside world. If a baby does not start breathing, its heart rate will drop and the circulation of blood carrying oxygen to the organs will be seriously affected. The damage done to a newborn who is deprived of oxygen happens so quickly that rapid response is imperative. During birth, the attending neonatal staff manually listen to the babýs heart and count the heart rate; however, this has proven inaccurate and inefficient. Nowadays, there is not a reliable method to monitor newborn heart rate promptly throughout birth. In this paper, we report the design and development of a novel smart mattress device to measure the babies' electrocardiogram and respiration non-invasively. The device is based on electrometer-based amplifier sensors combined with novel screen-printing techniques. Proof of concept tests are carried out to demonstrate the suitability of the smart-mattress for new born ECG monitoring. We perform tests with a young infant and demonstrate the potential of this sensing technology to provide a quick and reliable application as ECG readings were displayed within a time <; 30 seconds. This will aid the neonatal staff to assess the success of the resuscitation technology aiming to lower the incidence of long-term consequences of poor adaptation to life outside the womb.