When one has gone through a pregnancy already dominates the more or less specialized terminology with which we move in this new world of medical tests and controls. But if you are not pregnant yet or if you are at the beginning of pregnancy you may not have heard of "the monitors". What are monitors and what is fetal monitoring for?
I did not know very well what my pregnant friends meant when they commented, in the last month of pregnancy, that "it is my turn to monitor". There is also talk of being "straps" referring to the same control test. A fetal monitor or cardiotograph (CTG) performs external fetal monitoring that controls two fundamental parameters of the baby and the pregnant woman:
- The fetal heartbeat and its frequency is recorded with an ultrasound Doppler probe. The monitors allow you to hear the baby's heartbeat.
- The state of matrix contractions It is registered with a probe capable of detecting these uterine contractions.
Both probes keep in contact with the pregnant woman's abdomen thanks to some tapes or straps that fit the mother's contour. The tapes have electrodes (transducers or sensors) that are a kind of electronic discs that allow you to capture and record the baby's heartbeat and its contractions.
The information is transmitted to a machine with digital and audible screens and recorded on a paper band. We can ask our gynecologist to give us this piece of scrap paper, as if it were an ultrasound, where the baby's heartbeat and our contractions are marked.
Sometimes the machine incorporates a button that the mother has to press every time she feels a kick or any movement of the baby, movements that are also recorded.
These monitors are usually placed on occasion during the last weeks of pregnancy, probably more frequently if we exceed the expected date of delivery. In this way, the health of the fetus and the possible contractions of the mother are controlled.
Monitors during childbirth
Sometimes the mother is also monitored during the first phase of childbirth, although this entails the immobility of the woman, who must be lying down for the reading to be effective. This is the main drawback, since it could delay the progress of labor by not facilitating fetal descent or opening of the cervix.
Therefore in dilatation the ideal would be monitor women at intervals, but not in a continuous way because, when connected to the device, it must remain lying or sitting and cannot move freely, unless the hospital has telemetry devices (which collect fetal beats and contractions using radio waves), something that is not usual and is less reliable.
On the other hand, when the epidural is applied, monitoring should be performed in bed, under medical supervision. In deliveries that present complications from the beginning, the technique is used throughout the entire process.
External fetal monitoring offers specialists all the information related to the baby's heart rate and contractions during labor, and could detect fetal distress. If a sudden change occurs in the baby's heartbeat, the device would allow it to be detected.
In my first birth it was the monitoring of monitors that made doctors detect certain fetal distress and act accordingly. Although I insisted on being as incorporated as possible during the first phase, before applying epidural anesthesia, I would have liked to move more, although I did not want to do without that control. This is a very personal decision and in certain hospitals you can decide on this aspect.
Internal fetal monitoring
If doctors during childbirth believe that the baby's heartbeat needs to be examined more closely, internal fetal monitoring may be performed. Notices at the top of the baby's head a small electrode which passes through the cervix to directly monitor the child's heartbeat. This is only possible if we have broken waters and if the cervix already offers sufficient dilation.
Internal fetal monitoring to check the fetal heart rate may become more comfortable since one of the pieces placed around the abdomen will be removed, allowing more freedom of movement.
In our birth plan we can make all the observations we want about monitoring.
So that the straps or monitors are that device that controls both the fetus's heartbeat and contractions uterine and usually applied the last weeks of pregnancy or during childbirth.
