Fetal Surveillance During Labor Flashcards
What can cause adverse fetal neonatal outcomes?
- Antepartum complications
- Suboptimal uterine perfusion
- Placental dysfunction
- Intrapartum events
What was fetal heart rate monitoring developed for?
- To detect FHR patterns that may be frequently associated with delivery of infants and poor outcomes
What are some benefits to FHR monitoring?
- Most studies reveal the incidence of neurologic damage and perinatal death with the use of electronic FHR monitoring is NOT significantly lower than that documented with older methods
What have some studies shown is highly associated with FHR monitoring?
- Increase in operative vaginal deliveries and C sections
Why do we not revert back to traditional fetal monitoring systems?
- Reassurance that >90% of a good fetal outcome is associated with normal continuous FHR data
- Great expense involved with 1:1 patient to nurse that is mandatory for intermittent auscultation
- The knowledge that non reassuring continuous FHR monitoring may provide warning of potential problems and a gauge of fetal response to actions undertaken to improve fetal conditions
What are the different types of fetal monitoring?
- External (continuous)
- Internal (will provide most accurate tracings)
What are some different external monitoring systems?
- Doppler ultrasound inducer
- Pressure sensitive tocodynamometer transducer
What does a doppler ultrasound transducer do?
- Placed on maternal abdomen overlying the fetal heart
- Records reflected sound waves from the fetal heart back to the transducer
What does a pressure sensitive tocodynamometer do?
- Detects and records contractions
- Useful for measuring the frequency of contractions but NOT the strength
What may hinder the results of external fetal monitoring?
- Maternal obesity
What are some internal fetal monitoring systems?
- Fetal scalp electrode (FSE)
- Intrauterine pressure catheter
What does a fetal scalp electrode do?
- Rate is computed from the R wave pekas of the fetal echocardiogram
- Maternal and fetal movement will not alter the quality of the signal
- Rare cases of fetal pustules have been reported
- Avoid in HIV patients
What does a intrauterine pressure catheter do?
- Soft plastic catheter placed transcervically
- Gives precise measurement of the intensity of the uterine contractions in mm Hg
What is required for internal monitoring systems?
- Membranes to be ruptured
How big is the fetal oxygen reserve?
- Only big enough to meet its metabolic needs for approximately 1-2 minutes
How does blood flow to the fetus changed during contractions?
- Blood flow from maternal circulation is momentarily interrupted during a contraction
- The normal fetus can tolerate the temporary reduction in blood flow to the placenta without suffering hypoxia because adequate oxygen exchange occurs during the intervals between contractions
What happens to the fetus under hypoxic conditions?
- Chemoreceptors and baroreceptors in the peripheral arterial circulation of the fetus influence the FHR by giving rise to contraction related or periodic FHR changes
What does severe hypoxia result in?
- Anaerobic metabolism, resulting in the accumulation of pyruvic and lactic acid causing fetal acidosis (fetal scalp blood pH <7.20)
What happens to the blood flow to the uterus as the contraction begins to subside?
- Uterine myometrial arteries reopen, allowing oxygenated blood and nutrients to flow from mother to baby
- Uterine myometrial veins reopen, allowing blood carrying fetal waste products to flow from the baby to the mother
What does the upper and lower tracings look at on a fetal monitoring strip?
- Upper: monitors FHR
- Lower: monitors uterine contractions
What is normal uterine activity?
- 5 contractions or less in 10 minutes averaged over a 30 min window
What is tachysystole?
- > 5 contractions in 10 minutes, averaged over a 30 min window
- Presence or absence of associated FHR decelerations
What is the baseline FHR?
- Is rounded to increments of 5 bpm during a 10 minute segment
- Normal is 110-160