Heart Monitor Effects on a Baby

Fetal heart monitoring devices have been used successfully for more than 30 years. These devices allow physicians and other health care providers to check on the status of the baby's heartbeat throughout the pregnancy up to and including during labor. Monitoring is typically done by non-invasive means by putting a sound conducting oil or gel on the mother's abdomen and then placing monitoring receivers on the abdomen in order to pick up, amplify and record the sounds produced by the baby's heart.

Function

• Fetal heart monitoring is performed in order to allow health care professionals to evaluate the strength of the baby's heart rate in part to determine how prepared the baby is to tolerate the birthing process.

Identification

• A fetal heart rate of 120 to 160 beats per minute, as recorded by a heart monitor, is considered normal.

Significance

• Certain abnormalities, including cord compression, fetal heart block, distress, oxygen deprivation and others can be detected by the use of a fetal heart monitor.

Benefits

• The Food and Drug Administration has found no evidence of risk to either the mother or baby associated with the use of external fetal heart monitors.

Warning

• The FDA has recorded instances of infection and bruising of the fetal scalp associated with certain types of internal fetal heart monitoring.