Monitoring the electrical activity of the uterus is used as a predictor of labor. In accordance with a first embodiment, the existence of gap junctions between cells is detected by stimulating the cells with electrical pulses having selective parameters and then detecting propagated signals emitted by the cells. In accordance with this embodiment, a needle (20) is provided having stimulation electrodes (44) thereon from which the stimulating pulses emanate and an array (40) of recording electrodes for detecting the pulses. In an alternative approach, an array of piezoelectric electrodes (70) is distributed within the array of recording electrodes (40). The signals detected by the recording electrodes (40) and piezoelectric electrodes (70) are monitored by a recording device (24) and stored within a computer (104).