Monitoring during birth

[Athrawes]

This may sound a bit dumb...I am a first time mum (fingers crossed), 28 weeks. I am not too concerned about the birth from my perspective - hell, it will hurt, I will do what my midwife tells me. I have started to get more attached to my baby now that I can feel him moving around more and he seems quite safe where he is - all warm and snug. If I get worried about him at this stage the MW can listen to his heart and tell me he is OK. I am reluctant to let him go...But what about during the birth - when his poor head is being all squashed up and squeezed, how will they be able to tell that he is OK then? What if he gets tangled up in his cord, how will they be able to tell?

His head will get squashed up and squeezed but it's supposed to, that's why it's made of movable plates which fold over each other slightly on the way out (and why they have a bit of a conehead afterwards!)

If he gets tangled up in his cord in most cases the mw will be able to see as the head emerges, and loop the cord back over the head, or even cut it if he was firmly stuck.

They have three choices with monitoring, they can either do it intermittently, listening in with a doppler thingy now and then, or you can have a stomach monitor on (like two bands which give a readout on a computer and also tell them how strong your contractions are) or they can fit an internal monitor which screws into the baby's scalp. hth

Unless it is deemed necessary for you to have continuous monitoring (having the bands round your tummy throughout labour) they will use a doppler to check the baby's heartrate regularly, which would indicate if he was having problems with his airway. No need to worry about heads getting squished....they're supposed to!

If he gets tangled up in his cord as he's coming down then he may get some decelrations in his heartrate. The m/w will pick this up through listening with a doppler and if she's worried will advise going onto a CTG. Its quite normal to get decelrations at the pushing stage either due to cord compression or head compression and as long as there is good recovery to baseline between the contractions it isn't a problem. Babies will normally have good reserves to cope with the compression, if they're not coping the heartrate will tell the m/w and if at this point she is really worried then they might call for a Dr to do a ventouse to get him out quicker.

Its unlikely that you'd need that but I'm just trying to explain that there are things that can be done to help. Or if its earlier on in the labour they can take a sample of blood from top of baby's head and anaylse that to see how baby is coping.

Thanks everyone...i understand that they are designed for this process...just, seems hard on them! Does it not hurt them?

no it doesnt hurt them at all, they are designed for that!
you can ask for continous monitoring, you'll be so busy coping with contractions or pushing that you wont care about the monitor. just keep active to help your baby move down the birth canal.
good luck

I was surprised that my dd2 came out yelling her head off and looking very cross, as it had seemed to me to be such a lovely, straightforward birth, I think I had expected her to be one of those babies that were really calm and quiet after the birth. I'll always remember seeing her coming up out of the water with her face screwed up and her mouth opening ready to scream as soon as she surfaced!
It was only some time afterwards that I recalled that the last bit when she had been coming out had been somewhat painful for me, and that I would've been exerting an equal and opposite force on her at that time - thus causing her some discomfort.

I've heard some people say that it really helped them in labour to think about the baby and to consider the baby is experiencing the birth with them - it made them try harder to relax and let themselves open as easily as possible.

As others have said though, babies are designed to take a lot of punishment during birth - some of it might even be good for them, kick-start them into life on the outside maybe?

Apparently, studies have shown that the only affect continuous monitoring has is to massively increase the CS rate. It has had no affect on outcomes for babies. This is probably because babies can put up with a lot more decelerations than midwifes and doctors can! Plus it is less easy to relax into your labour while fettered with all the straps (which will need constant re-adjustments to keep the signal if you are mobile).

Have you read any hypnobirthing books? I can't recommend them highly enough for tips on making your labour more gentle for baby. Try "Effective Birth Preparation" by Maggie Howell or "Hypnobirthing" by Marie Mongan.

The problem with the stomach monitor thingy is that it restricts your movement and you have to stay on your back, so best avoided unless absolutely necessary.

I was told beforehand that they wanted me to have continuous monitoring and I knew it would lead to a cs, and it did.