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Stiliyana Minkovska
Architect | Artist | Designer | Maker | Researcher
continuous maternal monitoring - ultra performance
“The progressive merging of my body with the machinery meant that, whenever and wherever the body-machine occurred, I lost perception and control. Amniotomy, foetal monitoring, I.V., anaesthetic, episiotomy, forceps: I retreated from my body more with every intervention, until I could no longer connect with my consciousness to the abject body that contained it.”
We live in a socio-political climate where one in five births is considered as ‘high risk’. The mother-to-be is seen somehow defective, requiring extra technological treatments, special medical monitoring and clinical prudence. They might be diabetic, disabled, over 35, overweight, with previous caesarean births, abortions, premature or still births or they could be drug users. Unconsciously, they become a part of a scoring system, which applies a social etiquette often regarding them as disarmed institutional casualties.
Ultra Performance could help overcome benchmarks, which pregnant people are assessed against. Currently, UP is widely used within the sport’s sector, however the true application of it lies within healthcare, where it could be used as an empowerment and optimisation tool. The NHS could invest in a model, which offers a holistic and inclusive maternal monitoring and evaluation during the non-monolithic experiences of pregnancy and childbirth and provide a supportive and safe platform working towards women’s physical, emotional and cognitive well-being.
While elements of systems, sensors, monitoring, and digital health exists, the proposed solution integrates these into a cybernetic organisation, which speeds up the interactions between the mother and her setting. It provides curated autonomy and a system that responds rapidly upon emergency. UP is achieved through synergies and interactions between the mother-user, the autonomous programme, the medical personnel, and the environment in a wholesome design package. It accumulates data, where both the mother and her healthcare provider have an immediate access to it.
It exists in a digital format as an app, monitoring and sending information instantly. The physical device is attached to the mother’s arm (similar to the diabetes’s CGM). The sensory apparatus, named CMM (Continuous Maternal Monitoring) apprehends the maternal condition at all times, sending advice, warning, reminders and reports about foetal and maternal condition. It mitigates risks of future complications and maintaining smooth prenatal and intranatal journey .