Fetal heart rate monitoring is a technique for obtaining important information
about the condition of a fetus during pregnancy and labor, by detecting the
FECG signal generated by the heart of the fetus. The ultimate reason for the
interest in FECG signal analysis is in clinical diagnosis and biomedical
applications. The extraction and detection of the FECG signal from composite
abdominal signals with powerful and advance methodologies is becoming a very
important requirement in fetal monitoring. The purpose of this review paper is to
illustrate the various methodologies and algorithms on FECG signal detection
and analysis to provide efficient and effective ways of understanding the FECG
signal and its nature. A comparative study has been carried out to show the
performance of various methods. This paper opens up a passage to biomedical
researchers, physicians and end users to advocate an excellent understanding of
FECG signal and its analysis procedures for fetal heart rate monitoring system
by providing valuable information to help them in developing more dominant,
flexible and resourceful application
