Fetal bradycardia

[ImpatientlyWaiting26]

Hi all,
My baby was diagnosed with fetal bradycardia at 22 weeks. I am now at 30 weeks and thinking about delivery options. His heart rate baseline falls between 110 and 130bpm. The obstetrician has ruled out the birth centre as I may be moved on anyway if his heart drops below a threshold. Has anyone had a baby with know fetal bradycardia? How was your birthday experience?
TIA

This is a wee bit confusing OP, as that heart rate is normal. Do you mean the rhythm is still abnormal? Or have you been on treatment to bring the heart rate up?

usually with a bradycardia the delivery plan is based on baby - like you’d require availability of NICU and paediatric cardiology, most times there’s only one hospital option really for that. And then if the heart rate is within normal at the time of birth then vaginal birth could be the aim, but if it’s low making monitoring in labour impossible, then a CS is recommended. The process for vaginal birth or CS would be basically the same as for any other baby otherwise but with NICU team available.
ultimately it’s going to boil down to your individual circumstance and how baby is doing close to birth, so would encourage just ask your Obs/cardiologist lots of questions.

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain this. We have had numerous appointments with fetal cardiology and tbh, we are just as confused by the mention of bradycardia. From what I understand, baby's heart rate is low end of normal (3rd percentile) for gestational age and there are likely episodes of bradycardia.
My concern is that his heart rate will drop below their thresholds in labour as it is already very low end of normal. The Obs did mention that there is risk of a category 1 c section in this case. While my preferrence would be to avoid a section all together, I do wonder if planned might be a safer, less traumatic option. I guess there is no predicting how baby's heart rate may behave in labour until we're in it!

Have you had some CTG monitoring? Might be worth doing some trial CTGs to see if they’re interpretable. If there are short stints of bradycardia sometimes it can be clear that it’s that and not a distressed baby, sort of depends how long it goes on for but a couple of minutes of it here and there in labour wouldn’t mean you need a CS.
vaginal birth can be good for baby in some ways as well - contractions sort of get them ready for the outside world, help them clear their lungs etc.
totally get that it’s a tricky decision and hopefully your team can help you think about all the pros and cons.
all the best

Thank you. Yes we have had several CTGs and the bradycardia is very minimal so not sure why they have it as a diagnosis all over our paperwork. They have recommended CTG in labour but I fear this will simply increase the risk of unnecessary intervention. I think I probably need a longer conversation about the pros and cons of both!