Apparatus and method for the detection of fetal heart rate.

Apparatus for detecting the heart rate of a fetus, the apparatus comprising: a detector (1-3) for detecting heart beats of the fetus, the detector comprising at least two electrodes for detecting ECG signals, the detector being positioned suitably in the abdomen mother and a processor (6) coupled to the detector (1-3) the processor being adapted to process the ECG signals received from the detector and determine the heart rate of the fetus, including the processor (6): a. means for detecting heart beats of the mother by determining when the ECG signals from the detector reach a maximum; and b. means for determining the heart rate by determining the time interval between adjacent heart beats, determining the heart rate of the mother, to suppress signal portions representative of the heartbeat of the mother; the processor is further adapted to detect heart beats of the fetus by determining when the ECG signal remaining peaks; and determine the heart rate of the fetus by determining the time interval between adjacent heart beats, wherein the processor (6) is adapted to determine the standard deviation of each time interval between the heart beats detected, and select the time intervals are less than a predetermined value standard deviation, to determine the fetal heart rate according to the time interval between adjacent heart beats, wherein the processor (6) is adapted for time intervals designed unselected are intervals erroneous time; and modify the erroneous time intervals in accordance with the time intervals selected by comparing the erroneous time interval to the selected time intervals, determining the number of errors within the erroneous time interval, and dividing the erroneous time interval into a number fixed time intervals corresponding to a number of heartbeats to the number of errors to thereby subdivide the erroneous time interval.