What Is Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring?
A doctor might use fetal heart rate monitoring to make sure your baby is OK when you’re in labor or if there are other reasons to check your baby’s heart rate.
Fetal heart rate monitoring is a process that lets your doctor see how fast your baby’s heart is beating. If you’re pregnant, your doctor will want to make sure your baby is healthy and growing as they should. One of the ways they do that is to check the rate and rhythm of your baby’s heartbeat.
The doctor is most likely to do this later in your pregnancy and when you’re in labor. They may combine it with other tests for a closer look if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, or any condition that could cause problems for you and your baby.
Reasons for Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring
The doctor is more likely to use fetal heart rate monitoring when your pregnancy is high-risk. You may need fetal heart rate monitoring when:
You have diabetes.
You’re taking medicine for preterm labor.
Your baby isn’t growing or developing normally.
The doctor might also use fetal heart rate monitoring to make sure your baby is OK when you’re in labor or if there are other reasons to check your baby’s heart rate.
Types of Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring
The doctor can monitor your baby’s heartbeat in a couple of ways. They can listen for or electronically record the beats from outside your belly. Or once your water has broken and you’re in labor, they can thread a thin wire through your cervix and attach it to your baby’s head.
Auscultation (external fetal monitoring): If your pregnancy is going normally, the doctor likely will check your baby’s heart rate from time to time with a special stethoscope or a hand-held device called a Doppler ultrasound. Doctors sometimes call this type of fetal heart rate monitoring auscultation.
If you need it, the doctor might do a special test called a nonstress test, usually starting around week 32 of your pregnancy. It counts the number of times your baby’s heart speeds up during a 20-minute period.
For the test, you’ll lie down with an electronic sensor belt around your belly that continuously records the baby’s heartbeat.
The doctor also may wrap an electronic sensor belt around you to measure the baby’s heart rate during labor and delivery. This lets them know if the contractions are stressing your baby. If so, you might have to have your baby as soon as possible.
Fetal Doppler: A fetal Doppler is a test that uses sound waves to check your baby’s heartbeat. It’s a type of ultrasound that uses a handheld device to detect changes in movement that are translated as sound.
Most women first hear their baby’s heartbeat during a routine checkup that uses the fetal Doppler. Many ultrasound machines also allow the heartbeat to be heard even before it can be heard with a Doppler. Most women now get an ultrasound before 12 weeks.
Internal fetal monitoring: Once your water breaks and your cervix opens to prepare for birth, the doctor can run a wire called an electrode through it and into your womb. The wire attaches to your baby’s head and connects to a monitor. This gives a better reading than listening to your baby’s heartbeat from the outside.
Choose Hwatime T series External Fetal Monitor
Quality Certification: CE&ISO
Instrument classification: Class II
Display: 12” colorful display
Features: Flexible, light design, easy operation
Advantage: Flip-Screen from 0 to 90 degree, large font
Optional: Monitoring single fetus, twins and triplets, Fetus Wake up function
Application: Hospital
/t12-fetal-monitor-product/
Post time: Aug-09-2023
