Electronic fetal heart rate monitoring keeps track of your baby’s heart rate and helps determine the strength and duration of your contractions. Listening to your baby’s heart rate is one way we can tell how he or she is doing on their way to meet the world. Show
While fetal heart rate monitoring can alert us to potential problems, it’s also important to remember that a variety of factors, not just heart rate, help us determine how well your baby is doing. Fetal heart rate monitoring is not a crystal ball that predicts your baby’s future health. I know this from experience. My son’s fetal heart rate looked terrible toward the end of delivery, which led to a few scary moments. However, he perked up shortly after birth and was just fine. Three ways to monitor fetal heart rateThere are three options to monitor your baby’s heart rate. In the first two types, your baby’s heart rate is continuously recorded, but with the third option, the nurse checks intermittently to see what the heart rate is during labor.
What can fetal heart rate monitoring tell us about your baby?The main purpose of fetal heart rate monitoring is to alert us if your baby is not getting enough oxygen. We want your baby to come through labor and delivery as smoothly as possible. We don’t want the stress of labor to threaten an infant’s health. A baby’s heart rate during labor should be between 110 and 160 beats per minute, but it may fluctuate above or below this rate for a variety of reasons. Short bursts of acceleration of the baby’s heart rate are common and indicate that the baby is getting an adequate oxygen supply. Brief decelerations in the baby’s heart rate also can be normal, such as when the baby’s head is compressed while in the birth canal. If these accelerations or decelerations are not occurring at the stages they should be, or if they are prolonged, it could mean a number of things, such as the umbilical cord is compressed and blood flow to the baby has been slowed. Sometimes a simple intervention such as changing your labor position will improve the situation. If the fetal heart rate results indicate that your baby may be in danger, your physician may recommend an operative vaginal delivery (using forceps or a vacuum device) or a cesarean section. Limitations of fetal heart rate monitoringThe use of fetal heart rate monitoring has grown dramatically in the past 35 years. In 1980, electronic fetal monitoring was used on 45 percent of pregnant women in labor. By 2002, that number had jumped to 85 percent. Despite the increased use of the technology, we have not seen a reduction in the risk of death and long-term problems from lack of oxygen – such as cerebral palsy. Meanwhile, studies have shown a link between fetal heart rate monitoring and increased interventions – such as C-sections and assisted deliveries using forceps or vacuums – when we are concerned the baby is in danger. False-positive fetal heart rate monitoring readings – which indicate there is a problem when the baby is actually fine – are common. We classify fetal heart rate readings according to three categories:
Because we haven’t been able to demonstrate an improvement in newborn outcomes with conventional electronic fetal monitoring, obstetricians have investigated other possible ways to improve monitoring fetuses during labor. UT Southwestern participated in a study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health that analyzed fetal electrocardiographic information with continuous internal monitoring. Unfortunately, that study did not show improvement in newborn outcomes or a reduction in the number of C-sections performed. A lot of factors go into assessing a baby’s wellbeing during labor – for example, the mother’s health at the time affects the baby, so we need to take that into account. This is where technology can’t replace a good doctor. If I see a fetal heart rate that doesn’t look great, the first thing I do is examine the patient. You have to put the reading in the context of what’s going on, and a fetal heart rate monitor can’t do that. Fetal heart rate monitors are useful tools, and babies’ lives have been saved because this technology has alerted us to problems. Still, we need to be aware of their limitations and remember that while a normal reading does not guarantee perfect health later, neither does a concerning reading predict future health problems. If you’re interested in receiving pregnancy information, tips and patient stories in your inbox, sign up for the Your Pregnancy Matters notification list. We’ll email you when new stories are published on our blog. Which heart rate is normal for a term fetus?The average fetal heart rate is between 110 and 160 beats per minute. It can vary by 5 to 25 beats per minute. The fetal heart rate may change as your baby responds to conditions in your uterus. An abnormal fetal heart rate may mean that your baby is not getting enough oxygen or that there are other problems.
What are the 3 fetal heart rate categories?Description. Normal FHR baseline: 110–160 bpm.. Tachycardia: FHR baseline > than 160 bpm.. Bradycardia: FHR baseline < than 110 bpm.. At what stage of fetal development does the heart begin to develop?The development of the heart begins as early as the third week of gestation with the 4-chamber fetal heart formed by gestational week 7. It involves complex biochemical signals, interactions, and specification of myocardial progenitor cells and heart tube looping.
What does a fetal heart rate of 145 mean?If it's over 140 bpm, you're having a baby girl. Below 140 bpm, you're carrying a boy. The truth is, your baby's heart will likely start beating sometime around week 6 of your pregnancy. You can even see and measure this flicker of light on an ultrasound.
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