Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Fetal Monitoring System

Childbirth is a complex series of mechanism by which a foetus is brought to the outside world. During gestation mother goes by a number of physiological changes that aids in maintaining her pregnant status. The journey that starts from developing embryo leads to delivery of the foetus. The whole pregnancy period is of 37 weeks. During this gestational period a mother has to go through regular visits to her gynaecologist, in those visits the mother undergoes a series of blood test and ultrasound screening to detect the foetal status. There are certain invasive tests performed to detect foetal abnormality. Preserving foetus and maintaining a non hostile environment inside a mother’s womb is necessary to maintain an effective foetus status.

There are foetal monitors developed to keep a check system on foetus development. There are two types of monitoring systems, external monitoring devices and invasive monitory devices.
External monitors include DOPTONE. Doptone is a Doppler foetal heart rate monitor .It detects the heart rate of a foetus growing inside of a pregnant woman. A foetal stethoscope can also be used for similar purpose but by stethoscope only the examiner can hear the heart beat. In early stages the foetus heart beat corresponds with the mother heart beat however by the end of ninth month the foetal heart beats 155 beats per minute.

The Doppler has a transducer that converts the heart beat of foetus into electric signals that can be heard by examiner and even the mother. Another external monitor used in obstetrics is cardiotocography. It records the mothers’ uterine contractions with the foetal heart beat.
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