Electronic Fetal Heart Monitoring
Fetal Heart Monitoring
What To Think About
- Not everyone feels the same about fetal monitoring.
- Some mothers think that fetal heart monitoring is not needed and interferes with the natural birthing process.
- Other mothers think that fetal heart monitoring is reassuring. This may be true if they had problems with earlier pregnancies.
- Fetal monitoring cannot predict every type of problem, such as birth defects. Normal fetal heart monitoring test results do not mean that your baby is healthy.
- Continuous monitoring during labor is more likely to be useful for high-risk pregnancies. Intermittent fetal heart monitoring during labor is as effective as continuous monitoring in low-risk pregnancies.
- If your baby appears to be having problems, sometimes a blood sample is taken from a small blood vessel (capillary) in his or her scalp. The blood sample can help determine if your baby is receiving enough oxygen.
- Your baby may move more if you eat or drink juice before having a nonstress test. This may make the test results more useful.
- Sometimes other methods (such as ringing a bell near the uterus) are used to cause changes in your baby's heart rate.
- External fetal heart monitoring is used during other tests of fetal health, such as a nonstress test, contraction stress test, and biophysical profile. For more information, see the medical tests Contraction Stress Test and Biophysical Profile.
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| Author: | Jan Nissl, RN, BS Sydney Youngerman-Cole, RN, BSN, RNC | Last Updated: September 5, 2006 |
| Medical Review: | Tom Bailey, MD - Family Medicine Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH - Family Medicine Kirtly Jones, MD - Obstetrics and Gynecology | |
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| Topic Contents | |
| Test Overview | |
| Why It Is Done | |
| How To Prepare | |
| How It Is Done | |
| How It Feels | |
| Risks | |
| Results | |
| What Affects the Test | |
 | What To Think About |
| Credits | |