How do fetal monitors work?

Using an electronic fetal monitor is the best method of monitoring your baby during labour. It is the one piece of equipment that is routinely used in all labours, both normal and abnormal.

The fetal monitor may look quite impressive, but it is just a more sophisticated version of the monitor that your doctor used to check your baby’s heart rate at each prenatal visit. It works on the same principle, using ultrasound waves to detect the movement of the fetal heart, and translating the changes in the waves to sound.

The monitor can create a visual record of the heart rate because it contains a computer that instantaneously calculates the heart rate and displays the number. A pen then continuously records the changing heart rate, producing a permanent graphic record. A second pen then records the contraction pattern below the heart rate on the monitor paper.

Monitoring contractions is very important because the heart rate pattern is almost impossible to interpret, unless you know when the contractions are occurring.

So, what do we learn from fetal monitoring? Monitoring the fetal heart rate can give valuable information about the baby’s well-being, and its health in the last trimester of pregnancy. Also, fetal monitoring can be used to assess how well the fetus is tolerating the stresses of labour.

Electronic fetal monitoring itself is not painful at all. That said, some mons-to-be find it quite uncomfortable to have the transducers strapped to their belly during labour. Being tethered to a monitor can limit your movement and make it harder to cope with contractions too.

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