What's the test that doctor usually assigned to women with an overdue baby? What's the machine called?

Question

The machine is a type of certain machine that can measue the heart rate of the baby with some cords connected to the mother's stomach.

Answer 1

I guess you are talking about a non-stress test which is done with a fetal monitor. They used this on me because I was diagnosed with IUGR with one of my pregnancies.

The two cords have different fuctions. One cord has a dopplar which monitors the fetal heartbeat.

The other cord which is attached to the mother's belly picks up uterine contractions.

Answer 2

They perform a non-stress test with an Electronic Fetal Monitor (EFM). The EFM does two things - one cord has a transducer that is a doppler that picks up the baby's heart tones, the other cord has a toco which is a tiny, sensitive pressure gauge and can sense the contraction of the uterine muscle when placed up against the belly.

The two measurements are traced on to graph paper. We look at the tracing for a few things that are good indicators of fetal well-being, or at least, fetal oxygenation.

The first is "variability" of the heart rate - is it staying at one constant rate, or is it variable, does the line on the tracing look squiggly or flat? We want it to have variability, to see the fluxuation of the rate.

The second are "accelerations" of the fetal heart rate. Every baby has a baseline resting heart rate, just like adults to. So for example, if a baby has an average, resting baseline of around 130 beats per minute, we would look for accelerations of at least 15 beats per minute that last for at least 15 seconds. This means that when the baby moves, the heart rate goes up - just like if you were to climb a flight or two of stairs, your heart rate would go up. It's another good sign that the placenta is functioning and the baby is well oxygenated. We want to see at least a few accelerations over the course of 30-60 minutes. Sometimes babies will be sleeping and there will be a stretch of time without accels. That's normal. And also, the presence of the "variability" I mentioned before is more important in the scheme of things than the presence of accels.

Another thing we look for is decelerations. Decels can be normal, but they can also be bad - it depends on how big the decel is, how low the baby's heart rate drops, how suddenly, and for how long. It also depends on if it happens in relation to a contraction during labor, and does it happen at the peak of a contraction or afterwards? Different timing means different things. Generally, late decels, or a drop in the heart rate after the peak of a contraction, is not a good thing, especially if they are low and sustained.

So that's a non-stress test, in a nutshell.

Answer 3

Its just a regular Doppler like what they use at the doctors office. Just a hospital grade, not a portable one. It still detects the babies heart beat but also detects your contractions. The only test I can think of that you may be referring to is a non-stress test.

Jill gives a FINE explanation of what exactly the "machine" does.

Answer 4

they do a non-stress test i had to have one done because i also was over due