What Is Fetal Monitoring?

What is fetal monitoring? During labor, your medical practitioner and nurse will be checking your baby's heart rate to keep an eye on how the baby is doing and see how it is tolerating your contractions. It is usually done with an automated fetal monitor or a handheld Doppler device like the one your physician used to listen to the baby during their prenatal visits. A stethoscope-like device called a fetoscope is sometimes used instead. Your baby's heart rate can be checked constantly with an electronic fetal monitor or occasionally (this is called intermittent auscultation). Most women who give birth in United State hospitals are hooked up to an electronic fetal monitor more or less continuously throughout labor. What is continuous electronic …show more content…
Your labor nurse will embrace the Doppler or fetoscope against your abdomen and heed to your baby's heartbeat, just as he or she did during prenatal visits, and he or she will measure your contractions by resting her hands on your belly. He or she will check at precise intervals, such as every fifteen to thirty minutes in the active phase of the first stage of labor and every five minutes during the second stage of labor which is pushing. He or she will calculate your baby's heart rate between contractions when it is not moving to determine its baseline fetal heart rate (which is normally in between one hundred ten and one hundred sixty beats per minute). He or she will also pay attention throughout some contractions and for a small amount of time afterward to get a sense of how the baby is enduring them. In addition to the prearranged interval checks, your baby's heart rate will be assessed as needed, such as before and after vaginal exams or when your water breaks. If your physician suspects a problem is emerging, he or she will check the heart rate more repeatedly. You may end up with electronic fetal monitoring for a short period of time or, if necessary, for the rest of your …show more content…
If the external monitor is not picking up well (which occasionally occurs if you are moving about a lot or are overweight) or your doctor has some apprehensions and desires a more precise reading, he or she may indicate to do internal fetal heart rate monitoring. In this situation, an electrode with a tiny spiral wire on the end is inserted through your cervix and screwed into the surface of your baby's scalp. Your physician could also choose to get additional information about the potency of your contractions by implanting a special catheter-like gauge within your cervix for internal uterine