Today’s Fetal Monitoring: Responding To “multiple” Needs

Today’s Fetal Monitoring: Responding To “multiple” Needs

The increasing number of high - risk pregnancies is placing greater demands on hospitals and obstetrical clinicians worldwide – and is resulting in a need for a higher level of fetal - maternal monitoring during both the antepartum and intrapartum delivery of care during pregnancy. So it is of excitement and importance to those who deliver obstetrical care to know how the latest technologies are branch to address these new challenges and demands.
Pregnancies with multiples append 2 of all live births in the United States an most developed countries, with the current frequency of high - order multiple births at 400 - 800 since 1980 and the scale of triplets has further more than 400 of singleton gestations, over 80 % of multiple pregnancies develop complications antenatally. [5]
Fetal monitoring is the standard of care in most modern labor and delivery care settings, but with increasing multiple births, monitoring of twins and triplets is now a required functionality. Even the primordial community hospital today can expect to see its fair share of multiple births. Today’s new engendering of fetal monitors can serve non - invasive triplet monitoring in one device and offer solutions for patients’ desire for ambulation as well as caregivers’ needs to be away from the bedside during labor.
Various societal factors have impacted pregnancy risk factors. Due to major changes in the lifestyle of women during the second half of the 20th century, the age at which childbirth is proper has unused in most developed countries. [1] In addition, massed risk during pregnancy is attributed to younger age as well as modern age, [3] and according to a December 2007 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the birth ratio among teenagers 15 to 19 in the United States chestnut 3 percent in 2006. [4] Add to this the actuality that health concerns congeneric as diabetes and obesity are on the rise in women of child - bearing age, which can jeopardize a pregnancy, and the detail that more women are conceiving with in - vitro fertilization ( IVF ), which can outcome in multiple births. [1] Together these factors contribute to a growing frequency of high - risk pregnancies and deliveries with hidden adverse complications that implicate preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, and placental abruption. [5]
Lawrence Devoe, M. D., professor and former chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology with the Medical College of Georgia, explains the greater demands created by ART. “IVF is providing a child to families whose inability to conceive naturally would distant sufferance them childless. But the welcome side of that is an likewise ratio of multi - fetal maturation, which in turn creates a location of elevated risk not ring in in a single pregnancy. And even with a single pregnancy, with IVF we are often dealing with a population that can be of an older age and with an elevated risk of medical problems allied as hypertension and diabetes. ”
Minimizing risk is of paramount importance with the IVF population, Dr. Devoe points out. “You can’t predict the future but you can maintain an relevant level of vigilance. The argument for the widespread use of fetal monitors is that without them, the unpredictability of labor can lead to irrelevant jeopardy for the mother and baby. Two common complications of labor are placental lapse and placental dysfunction, which are not always possible to predict. The family that has undergone IVF has made a huge investment of time, energy, warmth and capital in having a child. You want to stay as far away from disquiet as possible. They are possibly the most risk - allergic population one could find. ”
The changes in obstetrical care and obstetrical patients as outlined most has resulted in a whole new set of requirements to address these previously unmet needs needing to be addressed in state of the art fetal maternal monitoring solutions.
This is why high - level fetal - maternal monitoring solutions make a singularity. When considering an investment in fetal - maternal monitoring technology for multiple births and other high - risk situations, it is prudent to consider certain features that are available on the market today:
• A larger peripheral display that can be mounted across the room to allow clinicians to interact with the fetal - maternal observer even when they are not at the patient’s bedside.
• Electronic units linked to an obstetrical information management system give staff the ability to see the entire outlook of laboring patients, including the fetal maternal monitoring information, obstetrical transcribe, progress of labor, at a central nursing station, in massed patient’s room, in the obstetrician’s office or even at their home via a secure internet access.
• Long - term data storage of fetal heart ratio traces and obstetrical records and backups, is an important legal instigation so that data from the delivery can be generated even decades next if imperative.
• Non - invasive twins or triplets monitoring in one machine, with calm comparison of maternal heart rate with the fetal heart degree ( s ) ensures each heart proportion is being monitored separately and markedly.
• Monitoring of non invasive maternal blood misgiving, maternal Sp02, and maternal ECG / maternal heart proportion.
• Cordless transducers that own the mother to be walking while minx and the fetus or fetuses are being continuously monitored.
• Waterproof cordless transducers that avow the use of a Jacuzzi or bathtub or cascade for hobby and also pain relief during labor or for the option of a water birth.
Because women much make the majority of a family’s healthcare decisions, an obstetrics department can be considered an important marketing arm of a hospital. A reassuring and satisfying birth experience can liberty a significant impression and can eventuality in the utilization of subsequent services and referrals to others. Extra consideration is that today’s patients are educated and savvy. The availability of health information on the Internet and via note down publications has resulted in patients who are aware of their options and who are requesting the highest level of clinical care and technology that is available.
It is the care of companies developing fetal - maternal monitoring solutions to work toward alike innovation of technology to help the clinicians deliver better care and help improve outcomes. This must be balanced with providing the best returns on investment for each tight healthcare dollar and quickie various worldwide needs with affordable products that provide attractive long term cost of clout.
Dr. Devoe has attended over 10, 000 deliveries in his 39 years of practice and published one of the earliest studies involving the monitoring of multiples in the 1980s. “Fetal monitors are the first line of defense, especially when a nurse or physician can’t be at a bedside all the time, ” he concludes. “I can’t even actualize to tell you have many babies I’ve personally intervened with whose outcome would have been a great deal different if not for fetal monitoring. ”
[1] Blickstein I, The worldwide impact of iatrogenic pregnancy. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2003; 82: 307 - 17.
[2] Burry K. Reproductive medicine: where we have been, where we are, where are we scene? An ethical perspective. Am J
Obstet Gynecol. 2007; 196 ( 6 ): 578 - 80.
[3] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Births: Final Data for 2005. Atlanta, Ga: National Heavy Statistics Report; December 5, 2007. Berth 56, Number 6.
[4] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Teen Birth Percentage Rises for First Time in 15 Years. Atlanta, Ga: National Center for Health Statistics; December 5, 2007. Available at: http: / / www. cdc. gov / nchs / pressroom / 07newsreleases / teenbirth. htm. Accessed Tread 3, 2008.
( 5 ) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http: / / www. cdc. gov / nchs / data / nvsr / nvsr56 / nvsr56_06. pdf Births Final Data 2005