NIFERCA – NI-fECG with Reference CTG and Annotations

The collected research material includes multimodal non-invasive fetal electrocardiography (fECG) signals and reference cardiotocography (CTG) recordings acquired simultaneously during the antepartum period and early labor. The dataset consists of twelve 20-minute, 12-lead abdominal ECG (aECG) recordings from pregnant subjects (≥ 37 weeks of gestation). To provide a robust ground truth for signal processing, the data includes expert-verified annotations of maternal and fetal R-peak positions, as well as digitized fetal heart rate traces derived directly from the clinical CTG. The material is provided in both raw and pre-processed formats and is accompanied by relevant clinical metadata (e.g., gestational age, labor phase, Apgar scores). All data collection procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Hung Vuong Hospital (IRB-VN02.020), and written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to measurement. We provide the scientific community with access to these biologically sourced, signals to enable the development, training, and validation of new methods for non-invasive fECG signal analysis. Ultimately, this aims to advance abdominal electrocardiography as a highly accurate, entirely passive alternative to conventional CTG monitoring.