Electronic Fetal Heart Monitor Strips

ELECTRONIC FETAL HEART MONITOR STRIPS

Electronic fetal heart monitoring is commonly used for tracking how well the baby is doing within the contracting uterus and for detecting signs of fetaldistress.

External fetal heart monitoring is performed by attaching external transducers to the mother's abdomen with elastic straps (see diagram). The transducers use Doppler ultrasound to detectfetal heart motion, and the information is sent to the fetal heart monitor which calculates and records the fetal heart rate on a continuous strip of paper. More modern fetal heart monitors haveincorporated microprocessors and mathematical procedures to improve the fetal heart rate signal and the accuracy of the recording.

During fetal monitoring, a nurse will evaluate the strip for continuity andadequacy for interpretation, identify the baseline fetal heart rate and presence of variability, determine whether there are accelerations or decelerations from the baseline, identify patterns ofuterine contraction, and correlate accelerations and decelerations with the uterine contractions. This will allow the nurse to determine whether the fetal heart rate recording is reassuring,nonreassuring, or ominous. A plan can then be developed for the situation to help deliver the baby in the best possible manner.
-------------------------------------------------
Principio del formularioFinal del formulario

Reading The Fetal Monitor Strip

The typical fetal monitor strip consists of two rows of graphs; the upper graph charting the fetal heart rate (in beats per minute) and the lowergraph charting the mother's contractions (in mm of Hg). The normal fetal heart rate range is between 120 and 160 beats per minute. The small up and down fluctuations in the fetal heart rate arecalled "variability", and a long term deviation in the fetal heart trate that lasts more than 15 minutes is considered a change in baseline.

Just above the lower graph are notations to the time that...