HUM involves the use of a special monitoring device, which monitors pregnant women while they remain at home. The monitoring device is used to record contractions, and if there are more than 4 contractions per hour, the patient goes to the emergency room for further assessment. HUM has not been shown to prevent prematurity in randomized clinical trials; in fact it is extremely expensive at a direct cost of $800 per day. Furthermore, HUM has increased the number of patient visits to the emergency room, while at the same time failing to reduce prematurity all together. A visit to the emergency room for such a reason may cost more than $2,000 raising the total cost of the procedure significantly. In addition to the direct costs incurred by this method, one has to also consider the inconvenience and loss of productive time for all involved. At KOFINAS PERINATAL, we do not use HUM and our results have proven superior to any service that does.
