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Fetal monitoring for many years was accomplished by listening to an infant’s heartbeat through a stethoscope. A strong, regular heartbeat is a sign that an infant is doing well during labor. A significant, prolonged drop in rate or intensity of the heartbeat is a sign of distress of a fetus that may, on occasion, necessitate a cesarean delivery in order to prevent damage to the infant.
Electronic monitors have replaced the stethoscope for keeping track of the infant’s heartbeat. In some cases, external monitors are used to keep track of both the uterine contractions and the fetal heartbeat by electrodes strapped to the mother’s abdomen. Electrodes are inserted during the first stage of labor and are placed directly on the infant’s head. This requires that the amniotic sac be ruptured, if it has not already ruptured. Some of these monitors are capable of measuring the acidity of the infant’s blood as well as the infant’s heartbeat. The mother’s uterine contractions are also measured.
The theory of fetal monitors is the detection of early infant distress. Many women object to them on the grounds they interfere with mobility during labor. There are other disadvantages to fetal monitoring; the use of fetal monitoring is some hospitals has increased the rate of cesarean deliveries. But the rate of newborn complications in hospitals not using fetal monitors appears no different from the hospitals using the monitors and having a higher cesarean delivery rate.
Fetal Monitors are used during cesarean births and premature births. Cesarean births or C-section is a surgical procedure performed under general anesthesia to remove the infant from the uterus through the abdominal wall. C-sections are performed in five to fifteen percent of births. Fetal monitors increase the chance of detecting infant distress.
Between five and ten percent of all infants are born more than two weeks before the due date. Infections, longstanding illness, poor nutrition, and complication of pregnancy also can lead to premature labor. However, the majority of premature births are unexplained. Due to the wide spread use of fetal monitoring the chances of a premature infant surviving and developing normally are excellent.
When mothers who are in labor are given anesthesia, fetal monitors are also used. General anesthesia is used rarely in the United States today, but it is sometimes used after the first stage of labor is complete. With general anesthesia, the mother has no awareness of either pain or the birth of her child. General anesthesia had been known to have detrimental effects on newborns, so fetal monitoring is required to determine the infant’s vital signs.
When spinal anesthesia is administered complications are possible for both the mother and the child. With spinal anesthesia the mother is in complete absence of pain from the waist down. In most cases of anesthesia being used, doctors can not depend on the mothers to relay messages of complications. This is the reason that fetal monitoring is so important in the delivery of newborns.
Most of the many physicians in the United States believe that fetal heart monitoring is of the most importance in high risk and complicated pregnancies and when the mother and baby develop a problem during labor.
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