For pregnant mothers, the safety and health of the baby in the belly is a top priority. It is also the good wish of moms to get baby information in real time.
As a result, just like the household blood pressure meter, blood glucose meter and so on, the household fetal heart meter also came into being.
With the help of the fetal heart, the pregnant mother can hear the heartbeat of the fetus through her belly at home. The heart trembles with the baby in her belly and feels the pleasure of it, which is also a kind of happiness during pregnancy.
But! If we seriously judge the health status of the fetus according to the numerical results of the fetal heart rate, we will not be so strict.
Is the baby healthy? I don’t know about the fetal heart
The instructions for the Fetal Heart Appreciation look so attractive because it is so simple: you only need to apply [jelly] to your stomach three times a day and then pick up the stethoscope to listen to it.
Is that all right?
It’s not.
Regardless of whether pregnant mothers can correctly place the stethoscope and listen, even if they can listen, it is often 1-2 days after the fetal activity is abnormal, which is inevitably too late.
In addition, the fetal heart meter can only tell us whether the fetus has heartbeat and how fast the heartbeat is in the minute of listening. However, whether the fetus is healthy or not is actually more reflected in the dynamic changes of fetal heart.
As the saying goes, we can’t generalize it in terms of points. This figure is actually very rough. We have finished listening in one minute, and what will happen in the next minute. No one knows.
In other words, the fetal heart meter is neither timely nor comprehensive in reflecting the possible problems of the fetus.
Sometimes, it even has the illusion of danger-for example, when comparing it with hospital [fetal heart monitoring].
Is fetal heart monitoring what?
In the 1970s, fetal heart monitoring-obstetrics and gynecology circles developed a more reliable method than fetal heart monitoring to monitor the safety of the fetus in the pregnant mother’s uterus.
Fetal heart monitoring records not a certain moment, but the change of fetal heartbeat rhythm within a period of time, that is, by recording the fetal heartbeat rate (hereinafter referred to as fetal heart rate) at each time point, and then [connecting points into lines].
Therefore, it often reflects more problems.
Why is it said that the fetal heart will appear false? Look at the following example.
This is a data recorded by fetal heart monitoring:
The normal fetal heartbeat is 110 ~ 160 beats/minute, and the average fetal heartbeat will obviously fluctuate due to the influence of fetal activity or uterine contraction.
If we use the fetal heart meter, we will listen to the fetal heart at any time point in the time period shown in this monitoring, and the result will be normal, and we will mistakenly think that the baby is safe. However, according to the display results of fetal heart rate monitoring, it will be found that the average value of fetal heart rate has no obvious fluctuation at all.
This is a very abnormal fetal heart monitoring, which needs to be dealt with immediately.
You see, if only hearing the heartbeat of the fetus is used as the basis for the safety of the baby in the womb, then I’m afraid there will be problems.
Fetal heart monitoring also has problems,
In this case, is it okay to use fetal heart monitoring instead of fetal heart monitoring?
Although fetal heart monitoring has collected more data and can reflect more problems, it has been found in clinical evaluation that it has not reduced the mortality rate of perinatal infants (referring to babies from 28 weeks of pregnancy to one week after delivery), but has increased the number of cesarean sections in vain.
Why is this?
Because, even if it is fetal heart monitoring, it is still difficult to capture the abnormal activity of many fetuses before death. It is possible that the fetal heart monitoring two days ago is still good, and after two days, it will not work. In addition, because the judgment standard for monitoring abnormalities is not perfect, misjudgment occurs from time to time.
So, is there no more reliable way to observe the safety of the fetus?
The answer is: Yes, and at zero cost.
Counting fetal movements is the most reliable!
Is fetal movement what?
This is what we mentioned earlier [the activity of the fetus in the uterus].
Generally, during the 18th to 24th weeks of pregnancy, when the baby’s hands and feet can touch the mother’s uterine wall, fetal movement occurs. For the pregnant mother, it is a feeling that the stomach shakes from the inside.
So how should fetal movements be counted?
Starting from the 28th week of pregnancy, the fetal movement will be counted once a day in the morning, in the middle and after dinner, because the postprandial blood sugar level is higher, the baby is also in high spirits, and the fists and feet will be more active.
When counting, you should sit quietly or lie on your side for one hour at a time, and then multiply the number of these three fetal movements by 4 to obtain the total number of fetal movements for 12 hours.
Under normal and healthy conditions, the number of fetal movements of the baby should be 3 to 5 times per hour, so there should be 30 to 40 times or more in 12 hours.
If it is less than 10 times in 12 hours, it indicates that the fetus may lack oxygen. If there is no fetal movement for 12 consecutive hours, you should contact the doctor immediately and take rescue measures.
When the baby is abnormal, fetal movement can often reflect the problem earlier than fetal heart.
Therefore, although the method of counting fetal movements looks primitive and time-consuming, it is a more reliable monitoring method for baby’s health.
The development of science and technology and the upgrading of instruments have indeed brought us more readily available data, and may subvert traditional medical treatment in the future, but it will take time. At present, instead of blindly relying on science and technology and instruments, it is better to be patient and walk slowly and steadily.
After all, it is a field involving health and life. It is better to take a smaller step than to drag eggs for gimmicks.