The paper investigates the relationship between umbilical cord size and fetal heart rate patterns during labor. Findings suggest that less Wharton’s jelly correlates with repetitive heart rate decelerations. However, misconceptions about fetal decelerations and their impact on fetal health were noted, along with a lack of evidence for suggested monitoring interventions.
Let me begin, like the good researcher I am, by defining some terms. Intermittent auscultation is a type of fetal heart rate monitoring. A device of some sort is used to make it easy to hear the fetal heart rate, so the person listening (auscultating) can assess certain features of the heart rate, to determine whether it is considered normal or not. Typically, a handheld Doppler device is used. This […]
Last week I shared two different research papers highlighting a link between epidural use and caesarean section for abnormal fetal heart rate patterns, pointing out that how these things were connected was not explained by this research. An independent group of researchers, based in Italy, have also recently published research in this area, and their findings provide some additional clues about what might be going on (Ghidini et al., 2023). […]
If we don’t understand physiology, we don’t know what we are doing when we are monitoring the fetus. What’s the latest on physiological control of the fetal heart rate?
Birth Small Talk 