palpating fetal heart rate

[uhbt420]

so the other day i had the honor of being present at my friend giving birth to her son. everything was fine until the very end, when the baby's heart rate started dropping. the doc told her to "push now" and the baby was out, fortunately they got him to pink right up.

now they used a special monitor to track the baby's HR as he moved down the birth canal, and it was with that device that they could tell his HR was dropping near the end.

my question is, would it be possible to track the baby's heart rate with a stethoscope?

 

[Shishkabob]

Mmm.. palpating is not the same as auscultating.



Sure, it's possible with good enough ears. But there's a reason why they typically use a doppler.

 

[abckidsmom]

We carry a doppler for finding difficult pulses and for listening to fetal heart tones. An important thing to remember is that once the baby descends deep enough into pelvis to be crowning, you're not really going to be able to pick up the fetal heart tones. Plus, most of the people are going to be busy getting ready to catch the baby.

If the labor is precipitous enough that you are the attendant for the birth, it's very unlikely that there will be problems. Babies who come quickly, while sometimes a little shell-shocked initially, are usually quite healthy.

 

[mikie]

...was taught to use the bell of the stethoscope to "attempt" to auscultate fetal heart tones

 

[TransportJockey]

Our trucks just got a Doppler to help with difficult manual BPs and for OB calls where it's beneficial to know the fetal HR

 

[usalsfyre]

Doppler preferably. The device your talking about sounds like a scalp electrode, which picks up on electrical activity (not the same as an EKG however).