being induced next week. worried about internal fetal heart monitor.?
I’m scheduled to be induced for labor next Friday. I was reading through some of the forms and found that the doctor wants me to have an internal fetal heart monitor. I’m thinking about whether or not I want to allow this to happen as I’ve heard that the risk for infection is higher. I also don’t want the baby to get hurt. How did some of you mothers feel about this and did you actually go through it? Also, I’m having a non stress test on Tuesday, I haven’t had any contractions, so how are they going to monitor them?
I’m being induced because I’m overdue. The doctor said he doesn’t want me going past 41 1/2 weeks. I pretty much have a week to go into labor on my own, if not, I have to get induced. I’m 2cm dilated but I haven’t had any contractions as of yet. They’re going to use pitocin to induce me and the only pain medication I’ll have is nubain.
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If you don’t want something to be done you can say "I do not consent to this" You even have the right to not to consent to an induction if you so desire.
They can use an external monitor instead or a hand held doppler instead of the internal monitor. You are correct, internal monitors will put you at a higher risk for infection.
A non stress test will just listen to your baby. If you have any Braxton Hicks contractions they will show up on the monitor.
i’ve had it with all 3 of my babies and will prob have it with my 4th here in a couple weeks. The baby will be fine and it doesn’t hurt the baby as long as the nurse or doctor doing knows what they are doing. Not sure bot the stress test..never had one
You can decline any procedure you are not comfortable with.
So many reasons I wouldn’t let them do that with me if I was giving birth in the hospital (I’m doing a homebirth) but one of the main ones is that it can put you on a fast track to a c-section because you aren’t allowed to be up and moving around, which helps the baby get into position. Laying on your back confined to a bed is pretty much the least productive and most painful ways to labor.
Can I ask why you’re having an induction?
My son had the heart monitor in jan when I was in labor… I didn’t even know the risks. Everything went fine. He inserted it after the epidural so I couldn’t even feel it. We’re both fine, too.
They actually attached it to his head… Other then the little red scab he had on the top of his head for about a month there was no problem with it. I wouldn’t worry. anyways GOOD LUCK! You’re going to be a mommy next week!
The monitor is for your baby’s protection….a doc will have to use it to make sure the baby isn’t in any distress. I would highly recommend NOT getting induced, I did it and highly dicourage it.
However, please for the sake of your baby let the doctor do their job in protecting you and your baby.
Internal monitoring really only poses a risk of infection if you are Group B strep positive. Continuously monitoring your baby is absolutely necessary if you are being induced. If they can continuously monitor your baby with an external monitor, then great. If not, internal monitoring is the only other alternative. In order to have internal monitoring, you have to be dialated enough for the doctor to be able to break your water, and the baby has to be low enough in the pelvis to be able to apply a scalp electrode. Internal uterine monitoring with an intrauterine pressure catheter is much more reliable than an external toco monitor. I personally would recommend internal monitoring for safety, as it is much more accurate, although most of the time it is not necessary. One of our OB docs always uses internal monitoring, and we have never had a bad outcome with the baby from any of his inductions. The problem we run into is when people start really hurting, many of them get more concerned about her own comfort than monitoring the baby and do not comply with necessary positioning for external monitoring. When you won’t let the nurse effectively monitor you with an external monitor (because lying on your back isn’t comfortable), then you are setting yourself up for fetal distress and potentially a bad outcome. I have personally seen a baby die in utero because the mother refused to get back in the bed and had an external monitor on. Very sad, but true.
Even though it is a perfectly natural thing, the biggest threat to a baby is being born. It allows the staff to tell sooner if the baby is having problems and intervene. The monitor is little more than a pinprick. A newborn can get an infection from scratching its face with its finger nail.
See source for nonstress test (NST)
First of all the internal fetal heart monitor I had during all my labors and it doesn’t cause any problems. It’s actually a good thing, that way they can monitor how the baby is handling the contractions and the delivery. Without this there is more of a risk of them not knowing that the baby is in distress. About the non stress test, they won’t be monitored contractions, they are monitoring the baby to see how the baby is going to handle labor. It’s no big deal really. They put the monitor on you, strapped around your belly, a bit uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it, and they monitor the babies heartbeat. They may have you eat a snack or drink some sweet juice to see how the baby’s heart reacts to activity. Also sometimes they have a buzzer thing they use to get the baby to start moving around when the sweets don’t work. I wouldn’t worry about this either. It’s nothing, all these things are in the best intrest of your baby. Congratulations and best wishes ♥
I’m not sure what they mean by internal fetal heart monitor, but I’m also doing the non stress tests twice a week. Non stress tests are actually very easy…..don’t worry.
I’m 31 weeks pregnant and they may induce me any day because of some complications. I’m also really stressed about the whole thing but I things Drs know more than me and I don’t have any other choice than trusting them.
Don’t worry and good luck.
I was induced (augmented actually, labour started on its own but didn’t go anywhere) and had the internal monitor – I was also Group B Strep positive.
At first, they just used the external straps but they would lose contact with the baby’s heartbeat with each contraction and couldn’t tell if it was due to the baby having problems, or just from me moving because I was still walking about. To find out if the baby was in distress I either had to stop walking around and lay down, or have the internal monitor.
I tried laying down through a few contractions but they hurt me a lot more that way than when walking, so I had the internal monitor. I felt really bad about it, having a clip stuck in my baby’s head in order to save me some pain, but I did it.
The internal monitor clearly showed that the baby really was in distress and it wasn’t just difficulties with the external monitor (it all worked out fine in the end – and the distress wasn’t the result of the induction). When my son was born I couldn’t see any sign of where the clip had been, so I felt a bit better about my choice.
If you are not comfortable with the idea of the internal monitor, you could ask to start out with external monitoring and only consider changing if that doesn’t work out.
I haven’t had a non stress test. They do say though that everyone has Braxton Hicks contractions in the late stages, it’s just that some of us don’t feel them. I never did.