Fetal distress occurs when a baby’s health is compromised while it is still in the uterus. It can happen during labour and delivery or even set in before labour has started. If not caught and treated in time, it can lead to serious injury or the death of the baby. Like many health crises, fetal […]
Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring
Risks of Uterine Contraction Patterns
Main Takeaways: Uterine contractions can compress the blood vessels in the uterus, potentially interfering in the transfer of oxygen to the placenta and the baby. In a normal labor, one contraction every two to three minutes or less than five contractions in a 10 minute period is ideal. A uterus must rest between contractions, having […]
The Importance of Ultrasound in Pregnancy
Main Takeaways: An ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create an image of a developing baby, the mother’s placenta, and uterus, usually during the second trimester. An ultrasound can provide very important diagnostic information about a developing baby, including confirming the pregnancy and gestational age; checking for multiple pregnancies, congenital anomalies, and/or problems with the […]
Scalp Electrode for Fetal Heart Monitoring
Main Takeaways: A scalp electrode is applied to a fetus’ scalp which monitors the baby’s heart, similar to an ECG A scalp electrode monitors a fetus’ heart rate more accurately than an external monitoring method for a variety of reasons. Internal methods of heart monitoring are only of use after membranes have ruptured and when […]
Fetal Non-Stress Tests
Fetal non-stress tests are used in pregnancy to passively monitor the baby’s heart rate, which tells health care practitioners about the health of the baby. What A Non-Stress Test Tells You About Your Baby’s Health The number of beats per minute and the pattern of the baby’s heart rate can actually tell a health care […]
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOUR BABY WAS INJURED? FETAL HEART RATE PATTERNS
This is the third in a series of three articles about how medical experts determine when a newborn brain injury occurred. The first article in this series dealt with neuroimaging. The second discussed cord blood gas analysis. A newborn with signs of neurologic injury can suffer that injury any time during pregnancy, during labour and […]
