Fetal Heart Rate and Defects Essay

Electronic foetal lovingness observe is commonly utilizationd for tracking how well the muff is doing indoors the contracting uterus and for detecting signs of fetal distress. External fetal perfume monitor is performed by attaching external transducers to the mothers abdomen with elastic straps. The transducers use Doppler ultrasound to detect fetal feel motion, and the reading is sent to the fetal effect monitor which calculates and records the fetal emotional state crop on a continuous skid of paper. more modern fetal vegetable marrow monitors passel incorpo calculated microprocessors and mathematical procedures to improve the fetal heart order foreshadow and the accuracy of the recording. An echocardiography nookie be used before hold to accu aimly identify m each heart defects. The mother goat be case-hardened with medications that whitethorn set up normal heart rhythm in the fetus if the test shows that a fetuss heart is beating besides fast or too sl ow (Emitting & Waves, R.C., n.d.).The fetal heart starts as a tube which folds and fuses in a Byzantine structure that results in a muscular kernel with four chambers and four valves. It is non surprising that infinitesimal errors in development sack up lead to a wide variety of structural abnormalities in the 4 chambers, the 4 heart valves, the veins and great arteries. During fetal supervise, a nurse will evaluate the strip for continuity and adequacy for interpretation, identify the baseline fetal heart rate and presence of variant, govern whether there atomic number 18 accelerations or decelerations from the baseline, identify patterns of uterine contraction, and correlate accelerations and decelerations with the uterine contractions. This will allow the nurse to determine whether the fetal heart rate recording is reassuring, non-reassuring, or ominous (Childrens ticker Federation, n.d). foetal Heart Rate and DefectsThe normal fetal heart rate is mingled with 110 to 1 80 beats per minutes (BPM), unless bathroom vary. Fluctuations of the fetal heart rate (usually associated with fetal movement) during different periods of the day be common and often rise above 160, going as spunky as 180 to 190 and be considered normal. Listening to a usually beating heart using a fetal ultrasound Doppler as primordial as 8 weeks can offer reassurance and cut down on a lot of stress and help assure that the ontogenesis fetus is anicteric. While miscarriage occurs in only about 15 percent of app arntly normal pregnancies, it only occurs in about 1 percent of pregnancies where a normal heartbeat has been seen or heard (Medscape, n.d). novel studies conclude that changes in pregnant womens heart rate and line of work pressure due to chronic stress and anxiety can eat an effect on the fetal heart rate. The study did not name any negative set up on fetal health but confirmed that emotional based changes in a womans cardiovascular activity can wee real-tim e effects on a fetus.A previous study has shown that stress during pregnancy can cause an increase in the risk of low-birth weight and premature birth. More importantly, increased evidence suggests that pregnancy stress can actually reach the babys behavior and functioning later in sustenance (NT Detection Rate CHD, n.d.). The ability for expectant mothers to listen to the fetal heart rate with a fetal Doppler offers a safe method of early fetal bonding which was previously only available at antenatal appointments with a medical professional. With its approval for in home by the FDA expecting parents have increasingly been opting to rent or purchase fetal Dopplers to help rid some of the stress associated with the unknowns of early and late pregnancy. Fetal Doppler rentals are presently available finished many a(prenominal) online retailers at very affordable rates.Fetal heart rate supervise is the process of checking the condition of a baby during labor and delivery by moni toring his or her heart rate with special equipment. Electronic fetal heart rate monitoring (EFM) was jump introduced at Yale University in 1958. Since then, continuous EFM has been widely used in the catching of fetal compromise and the assessment of the influence of the intrauterine environment on fetal welfare (Evans and Niswander, 2000).There are two methods of fetal heart monitoring in labor. External fetal monitoring is done by the skin and is not meant to be invasive. Sensitive electrodes (connected to monitors) are placed on your abdomen over conducting jelly. The electrodes can sense the fetal heart rate (FHR) and the presence and duration of uterine contractions. Usually, the results of this test are continuous and are printed out, or they appear on a computer screen. Internal fetal monitoring involves placing a electrode directly on the fetal scalp through the cervix. The health care provider may use this method of monitoring your baby if external monitoring is not wor king well, or the information is inconclusive. Both types of tests are performed to evaluate fetal heart rate and variability between beats, especially in relation to uterine contractions. The tests also evidence the frequency and strength of uterine contractions (Belmont, 1998).Fortunately, fetal heart monitoring tests can detect numerous abnormal situations or conditions during pregnancy, such as trim back transmission line take to the woods to the ontogeny baby (cord compression), block of electrical signals within the heart muscle, causing an altered heart beat (fetal heart block), preposterous positioning of the baby (fetal malposition), too little oxygen supply to the developing baby, suggest the presence of infection, too little oxygen exchange between the uterus and the placenta, fetal distress, placenta abruption, and severe anemia in the developing baby. some common heart defects, such as holes between the chambers (atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect) and even more complex conditions such as transposition of the great arteries and tetralogy of Fallot, can be successfully managed after birth (Belmont, 1998).Many of the aforementioned situations detected during a fetal heart monitoring could mean that the baby has a natural heart defect. There are many types of congenital heart defects which is why it is so important that the fetal heart monitoring be done before and during labor. A fetal heart defect means that the baby will be innate(p) with a problem in the hearts structure. Learning of the squirts congenital heart defect can help to infer his or her condition and what you can expect in the coming months and years. nearly congenital heart defects are simple and dont train interference. Other congenital heart defects in tykeren are more complex and may require some(prenominal) surgeries performed over a period of several years. Heart-related complications can be temporary or may affect the child long-term (Emitting & Wave s, R.C, n.d.).One examples of a congenital heart defect is pneumonic atresia, which is when no pulmonary valve exists, so telephone circuit cant flow from the right heart ventricle into the pulmonary artery and on to the lungs. The right ventricle acts as a blind pouch that may stay small and not well developed. The tricuspid valve is often poorly developed, too. An opening in the atrial septum lets blood exit the right atrium, so venous (bluish) blood mixes with the oxygen-rich (red) blood in the left atrium. The left ventricle pumps this mixture of blood into the aorta and out to the body. Pulmonary atresia occurs in about one out of each 10,000 live births (Pulmonary Atresia, n.d.).Another type of congenital heart defect is congenital heart block, when detected at or before birth in a structurally normal heart, is strongly associated with autoantibodies reactive with certain proteins. In this defect, the hearts electrical signal doesnt pass from the hearts own natural pacemake r in the atrium to the lower chambers. When this occurs, an self-employed person pacemaker in the lower chambers takes over. The ventricles can contract and pump blood, but at a slower rate than the atrial pacemaker. have sex heart block is most often caused in adults by heart disease or as a side effect of medicate toxicity. Heart blocks can be present at birth (Belmont, 1998). persisting lumbar epidural anesthesia anesthesia is commonly used for analgesic treatment during labor and delivery It is still a matter of controversy whether epidural anesthesia has direct or indirect side effects on the fetus. It has been reported that local anesthetics can cause changes in the fetal heart rate patterns in the sense of direct myocardial side effects (Evans and Niswander, 2000).It is apparent that there are marked cardiovascular changes that occur in the fetus with a congenital heart defect compared with the normal healthy fetus. Without the use of fetal heart monitoring tests, we woul d be unable to determine if the fetus has a congenital heart defect which could drastically check treatment of the condition. Treatment varies widely with the type of disease, the effect that pregnancy has on the disease, and the effect that the disease has on pregnancy. If it is the fetus that has a problem, serial ultrasounds may be performed. Fetal heart rate monitoring may be necessary, or amniocentesis may be required. In addition, it may be essential to give the mother medications to act on the baby (Belmont, 1998). unofficialA fetal heart defect is an abnormality in any part of the heart that is present in an unborn child. Approximately 35,000 infants are born with heart defects each year in the United States. An echocardiography can be used before birth to accurately identify many heart defects. The mother can be treated with medications that may restore normal heart rhythm in the fetus if the test shows that a fetuss heart is beating too fast or too slow. In most cases, sc ientists do not know what makes a babys heart develop abnormally, but genetic and environmental factors appear to play roles.