Fetal Heart Rate Health Aspects

What is meant by fetal heart rate?

As an expectant parent the heartbeat of your baby brings a welcome sign of relief stating that everything is fine with your baby, the doctors find that the heart beat brings with it the confirmation of a healthy and strong heart and lungs. The first heart beat of your baby is heard around the end of the ninth or the tenth week.

A device known as Doppler is used to check the rate of heart beat of your fetus. There are two ways to measure the rate of heart beat of your fetus:

1. Counting the heart beats for a minute
2. Counting the heart beats for fifteen seconds and then multiplying it by four.

There is a constant monitoring of the heart beat of your fetus right from the time it was first detected until the time of your labor. Once you start having labor pains then the doctor monitors the heart beat of the fetus in yet another way:

1) External Monitoring is the way where the fetal heart beat is measured through external means i.e. two units are placed on the belly of the pregnant woman, one unit helps detecting the heart beat while the other helps to measure the time between each contraction. There is no feeling of discomfort in this type of monitoring.

2) Internal Monitoring here the monitoring is done after the amniotic sac is broken in order to prevent any kind of infection to the baby. A fetal scalp electrode is used to monitor the fetal heart beat, this device is placed inside the vagina on top of yet to be born baby’s head which helps to monitor the fetal heart beat, in this method the mother may feel a bit discomfort as the device is inserted in the vagina.

How to determine the rate of fetal heart beat?

If the fetal heart beat ranges between 110 to 160 heart beats/minute then the fetal is said to be healthy and if there is any variation in the rate of heart beat i.e. either more or less than then the doctor needs to look into the cause:

1. Stress can lead to the increase or decrease in the fetal heart beat
2. Blood supply may not be reaching to the vital body organs and tissues of the fetal body
3. Use of certain drugs can cause blood pressure
4. The umbilical cord may be a compressed

Importance of monitoring heart beat during delivery?

Monitoring the heart beat of the baby during labor when labor is induced and change in the rate of heart beat can be a cause of worry. The doctor needs to take care of certain things like:

1. The mother needs to be administered with intravenous fluids
2. Use of oxygen mask to breathe if necessary
3. Change of labor position
4. Use of medication in order to decrease the rate of contraction so that you can relax
5. Deliver the baby using forceps or caesarean method.

Monitoring fetal heart beats during pregnancy and delivery helps in delivering a normal and healthy baby.