Three-year-old Jude is peeling the stickers off electrodes that will soon connect to his mother's pregnant belly.
His mother, Adele, is 36 weeks pregnant.
At this stage in Ms Baker's first pregnancy, Jude had already been delivered.
She says being able to check the progress of pregnancy at home, rather than having to book a medical appointment, would be very helpful.
“Going into the last few weeks of my pregnancy, after having Jude early I am obviously a little anxious and on high alert, So I think having a monitor like this would help me over the next few weeks.”
And help is on the way.
A device called the FeMom billed as a "virtual maternity ward", is expected to be ready by mid-next year.
It’s hoped it'll replace the need for frequent hospital visits for women with gestational diabetes, slow foetal growth and at risk of pre-term delivery.
That will likely make life easier for expectant mums, like Ms Baker.
“Yeah, I definitely think this device would add convenience. Getting to the doctors and obstetrician with my three year old can be a bit tricky. So this would definitely prove a level of convenience.”
Vinayak Smith, a Monash University clinical research fellow, is one of the FeMom's developer.
Dr Smith says it brings maternity care into the 21st century.
"It's basically a home monitoring system and the most comprehensive one we can offer in terms of a virtual obstetric clinic at the moment. So what this does is actually gives you the ability to itor the mother in the outpatient setting for the first time.”
Once the device is stuck on, it connects to the phone via an app, tracking the heart rate of mother and baby, as well as any potential heart contractions.
That information is sent to the treating obstetrician in real-time.
Developers say the device will initially be available by prescription for the 10-15 per cent of women in Australia with a high-risk pregnancy.
Head of Obstetrics Monash University, Professor Euan [[you-un]] Wallace says it could provide extra benefit for mums who live in rural areas.
00The benefit for us is that we can provide the care that women with high-risk pregnancies need in the comfort of their own homes, still under close surveillance without dragging them into a hospital and being disruptive to them and their families.”
Vinayak Smith says it's hoped the device will speed up the identification of distressed babies and enable quicker treatment.
“They probably would have gotten their monitoring and their intervention must faster than the waiting time they’d have in a hospital today. Yet to be proven in trials, but I would say the waiting time difference is quite significant, I would say they might not even had their monitoring session done (in a hospital) by that point (they discover a problem with Femom). ”
In-home trials are scheduled for January in Melbourne, with hopes the device will be made commercially available nationwide mid-2020.
