Fetal Monitoring Equipment

   Although the term used to monitor fetal well being is electronic fetal monitoring, the monitors currently used measure two distinct parameters.  The first is fetal heart rate, but equally important is the second, the pattern of uterine contractions.  The term “cardiotocograph” may more accurately describe the devices in use today.  

   As mentioned above, fetal monitors look at both fetal heart rate and uterine contractions. Fetal heart rate may be measured with an external monitoring device or an internal one.  Both of these transmit a signal to a console where the patterns are printed on a graph or transmitted to a video screen running at a rate of 3 cm /minute.  The display is a two channel display where the top channel is the fetal heart rate is displayed in beats per minute and the bottom channel is the uterine contraction pattern coinciding with the displayed fetal cardiac activity.

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