Oxford Labour Monitoring
OUR MISSiON
Oxford Labour Monitoring is committed to preventing injury of babies during labour and delivery, caused by lack of oxygen in utero - rare but devastating events. Our work will potentially benefit families, clinicians and healthcare systems by reducing brain injuries, the deaths of babies during labour or after birth and unnecessary medical interventions in childbirth.
OUR APPROACH
Our multidisciplinary research is focused on determining the relationship between fetal heart rate and fetal health around the onset of and during labour, by analysing 'big' routinely collected datasets of maternity data. The goal is to provide much needed, data-driven software at the bedside to support clinical decisions when women are in labour.
Latest News
Prof Antoniya Georgieva, Mariana Tome, Rachel Plachcinski and Daniel Asfaw will be presenting at the 4th Signal Processing and Monitoring (SPaM) in labour workshop in Munich, Germany, from 7-9 July. You can find more information about the workshop here.
OLM research recently featured in online magazine TechMonitor: 'Using big data to help midwives prevent potentially lethal brain injuries during childbirth'.
Meet our team
The research relating to monitoring during labour is led by Professor Antoniya Georgieva (Scientific Director). Our specialist team develops data-driven cardiotocography (CTG) systems/software to continuously assess fetal wellbeing at the onset of and during term labour. We are based at the John Radcliffe Hospital and at the Big Data Institute and collaborates with the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. The research is partially funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
| Associate Professor, Group Lead |
 | Clinical Research Fellow |
 | Nicky Lyon Expert Advisor and Patient Public Voice, co-founder of the Campaign for Safer Births |
 | Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
PUBLIC involvement
Oxford Labour Monitoring is committed to engaging the public in our work, by communicating what we do clearly and by putting women and families at the centre of our research. We call this Parent, Patient and Public Involvement (PPPI). Our PPPI strategy is led by Rachel Plachchinski and Charlotte Bevan with the support of Nicky Lyon, founder of the Campaign for Safer Births and our PPPI panel.
 | Parent, Patient and Public Involvement (PPPI) Co-Lead |
 | Parent, Patient and Public Involvement (PPPI) Co-Lead |
HOw we LISTEN TO A BABY'S HEARTBEAT
A CTG also known as a Cardiotocograph is a machine that monitors the baby's heartbeat and the uterine contractions during pregnancy and labour. We can listen to the fetal heart rate through a stethoscope, a Doppler hand-held device or a continuous electronic monitor. Electronic monitoring produces a paper strip, showing graphs of the fetal heart rate and of uterine contractions, which change with time.
watch our PRESENTATIONS
Antoniya Georgieva presenting at Signal Process and Monitoring in Labour conference 2017.
What we mean by Big Data in Fetal Monitoring; European Academy of Paediatrics Sciences 2020.
Our Latest publications
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Cardiotocography and Clinical Risk Factors in Early Term Labor: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Computerized Analysis With Oxford System
Journal article
Lovers AAK. et al, (2022), Frontiers in Pediatrics, 10
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The association between placenta-associated circulating biomarkers and composite adverse delivery outcome of a likely placental cause in healthy post-date pregnancies.
Journal article
Bowe S. et al, (2021), Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand, 100, 1893 - 1901
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Deceleration area and capacity during labour‐like umbilical cord occlusions identify evolving hypotension: a controlled study in fetal sheep
Journal article
Georgieva A. et al, (2021), BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 128, 1433 - 1442