would anyone who had continuous monitoring in labour please answer a simple question for me?

[GoldenGreen]

Hello - am asking for a friend - could you tell me how easy it is to move around whilst wearing the belt, and also how far away from the machine/bed can you get while wearing it - can you move away several feet, for example?

TIA - I did actually have this with ds when I first got to the hospital but I didn't move around at that point and just stayed on the bed so don't know how long the wires were!

[LiegeAndLief]

Sophia, I was at the John Radcliffe in Oxford. Might well be the case for other hospitals though...

Mummy, I think many hospitals "require" you to have CFM if you are having a VBAC. However, if you search the MN boards there have been many threads in the past about whether this is necessary and what to do if you want to refuse. I didn't want to refuse because of my complications but I had the same worries you do (cs was planned so I didn't know what labour would be like) - I can honestly say the wireless monitor hardly affected my labour.

[MummysHappyPills]

Thanks liege. I would liek to think that I could move around as I liked and if the signal was lost for abit so be it, and have more of an intermittent monitoring scenario? Glad you had a good vbac experience. I also don't know what it is like to have a contraction!

[Mandinga79]

I moved around constantly while on continuous monitoring during induction post waters breaking, and it wasn't wireless. I don't recall sitting down for 12 hours. Me and DH got pretty good at adjusting belts and holding wires so I could keep moving and we never lost the signal. DS was sitting up very high so I was doing everything I could to make him drop! (Didn't work - had an EMCS in the end. Oh well.)

[helsybells]

I haven't read all responses but at my hopsital they now have "wireless" continuous monitoring equipment. So I guess worth checking the status with the particular hospital in question.

[helsybells]

...Also, don't let them put CM on you unless they have a really valid reason and you are happy with it. It massively increases the likelihood of interventions, ventous, caesarean etc etc as things are picked up and worried about that would happen anyway/aren't always something to worry about so you should only have CM if you are happy to and there is a very valid reason.

[Marmiteisyummy]

I got to the hospital at 7cm but had a couple of decelerations so had continuous monitoring with wires from then for the 2.5 hours til DS was born. I was stood by the bed and then knelt up on the bed leaning over the back of the bed. Only turned onto my back at the very last minute as needed an episiotomy to get DS out.
It is a bit restricting but it doesn't mean you have to be flat on your back.

[Belmo]

I couldn't get off the bed but could move about a bit and get on my hands and knees.

[TeaandHobnobs]

I had CFM as DS was prem, but I managed several hours walking around near my bed (the leads allowed me to go a couple of feet from the bed) and sitting on he birthing ball.

Unfortunately DS then turned back-to-back and it was much harder to keep the trace if I leant forward (I was knackered and trying to have a cheeky snooze leaning forward on the bed )

So I ended up on my back on the bed, because I was too exhausted to do anything else

[milk]

I was able to stand next to the bed with the monitors on me :)

[MummysHappyPills]

You would have thought they could invent something a bit less cumbersome in this day and age? It's not that complicated surely? I think I am going to try and invent a machine and sell it to all the hospitals in the world!

[FruitSaladIsNotPudding]

I couldn't move at all without breaking the trace. Couldn't bear to be stuck on my back though so they ended up attaching monitor to dd's head. Shit solution tbh.

[plonko]

This has been playing on my mind a bit. At my 12 week scan the sonographer found 2 simple cysts on right ovary. They're not massive and haven't bothered me in the slightest, but I was referred to have shared care. None of this was really explained to us in terms of how it could affect the rest of my pregnancy.

Clearly its something they'll look for at my next scan in 2 weeks, but was only when I saw my midwife that she explained I'll most likely have cfm during labour! How did something so normal cause my nice low risk pregnancy to suddenly require monitoring? I'm hoping they've gone as I want a water birth, and am dreading being strapped to a bed unnecessarily!