Manual Palpations in Labor
Vanessa Partain
02/27/12
Physics Honors
Is Manual Palpations of Uterine Contractions Accurate? If the physics behind labor and delivery is inaccurate and is not followed through perfectly, it can arise complications. Physics is what makes a woman’s uterus contract to deliver a fetus through the birth canal. If a woman’s body fails to contract there will not be enough pressure to deliver the child. This will lead to a mother having a cesarean section. When in labor you may need to measure the pressure exerted from the uterus wall. This is when a intra-uterine pressure catheter will be inserted into the uterus around the placenta to measure the pressure of the contractions. By doing this the doctor can also measure the accuracy with palpations of the uterine contractions. The doctor will also need to be able to know the strength of every contraction. Doing a study on thirty six patients totaling two hundred and thirty six contractions led the team to the conclusion that thirty six contractions would be measured as mild contractions measuring 35.22 mm intra-uterine pressure. One hundred and five contractions were measured as moderate contractions being 44.9 mm. The remaining one hundred and one were measured as strong with an intra-uterine pressure of 55.5 mm. During the study the accuracy prediction was based between three groups. The first being junior residence with an accuracy of forty eight percent. The next group was senior residence with an accuracy of fifty one percent. Lastly, there was the maternal-fetal medicine staff with fifty eight percent of accuracy. Between all groups there was no significance that gave one group a higher advantage. When a person observed a contraction to be mild, fifty six percent of the time they were right. When observing a contraction to be moderate, they were correct twenty eight percent of the time. When observing a contraction to be strong, they were right sixty eight percent of the time. When
02/27/12
Physics Honors
Is Manual Palpations of Uterine Contractions Accurate? If the physics behind labor and delivery is inaccurate and is not followed through perfectly, it can arise complications. Physics is what makes a woman’s uterus contract to deliver a fetus through the birth canal. If a woman’s body fails to contract there will not be enough pressure to deliver the child. This will lead to a mother having a cesarean section. When in labor you may need to measure the pressure exerted from the uterus wall. This is when a intra-uterine pressure catheter will be inserted into the uterus around the placenta to measure the pressure of the contractions. By doing this the doctor can also measure the accuracy with palpations of the uterine contractions. The doctor will also need to be able to know the strength of every contraction. Doing a study on thirty six patients totaling two hundred and thirty six contractions led the team to the conclusion that thirty six contractions would be measured as mild contractions measuring 35.22 mm intra-uterine pressure. One hundred and five contractions were measured as moderate contractions being 44.9 mm. The remaining one hundred and one were measured as strong with an intra-uterine pressure of 55.5 mm. During the study the accuracy prediction was based between three groups. The first being junior residence with an accuracy of forty eight percent. The next group was senior residence with an accuracy of fifty one percent. Lastly, there was the maternal-fetal medicine staff with fifty eight percent of accuracy. Between all groups there was no significance that gave one group a higher advantage. When a person observed a contraction to be mild, fifty six percent of the time they were right. When observing a contraction to be moderate, they were correct twenty eight percent of the time. When observing a contraction to be strong, they were right sixty eight percent of the time. When