Obstetrical vacuum extractor with a pull-sensing handle grip

The invention consists of a new obstetrical vacuum extractor which includes a bell-shaped fetal contact cup made of flexible material, with a hollow and substantially rigid stem, a pull-sensing handle grip attached to the end of the stem, and a tube connected with one end to the cup stem and with the other to a vacuum source. The pull-sensing grip contains electronic hardware whose purpose is to reduce the risk of fetal trauma caused by frequent cup detachment ("pop-off") and excessive traction force, during a vacuum-assisted delivery. The hardware includes a strain gauge to measure the traction force applied to the vacuum extractor during a delivery, a speaker to alert the doctor when the traction force approaches a level sufficient to cause a fetal cup "pop-off", and a transceiver for the wireless transmission of the traction data to a receiver connected to a lap-top computer, which generates a graphic representation of such data, and emits a warning signal when pre-set time limit of continuous cup application on the fetal scalp is reached.