Fetal Oxygen Monitor Keeps Births Natural
Luz Colon, 21, beams with pride over her 7-pound, 8-ounce wonder, Luis Antonio, who was born after a frightening 12-hour labor.
Doctors at St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, placed Colon on oxygen when a fetal heart monitor showed that her fetus' heartbeat was dropping.
"I started crying because I started worrying--in the back of my head, 'Is my baby going to come out okay?'" she tells CBS2's Paul Moniz.
While it may be nothing to worry about, a dropping heartbeat can be a sign that the fetus is not getting enough oxygen, which can lead to cerebral palsy or other neurological impairments--even death. But now there is a device that can detect the difference.
The FDA-approved unit, called the Oxifirst Fetal Oxygen Monitoring System, is inserted through the birth canal during labor to continuously measure the fetus' oxygen level. Expectant moms feel pressure but no pain.
"This has been devised so that it sits alongside the baby's face, on the cheek, and can read without going through the baby's head," explains Dr. Robert Knupple, chairman of the St. Peter's University Hospital ob/gyn unit.
The device uses light sensors to detect the color of a fetus' blood, which indicates oxygen saturation. Readings under 30 are a sign of trouble.
The monitor is considered a breakthrough because until recently, the only oxygen test involved cutting into the scalp of the fetus to get a blood sample, which is not always reliable. As a result, some mothers are forced to have cesarean sections unnecessarily.
At a time when C-sections account for one in five births, the implications are significant.
"We hope this will allow us, number one, to take more time in deciding who needs a cesarean section, and number two, to be more correct in which babies are delivered by cesarean section," Knupple says.
In a clinical trial involving 1,000 births, the device reduced the number of C-sections resulting from abnormal or "non-reassuring" heart rates by 50 %.
It allows first-time mothers like Colon, to deliver vaginally when it shows that the baby's oxygen level is not compromised.
"I just think it's a great improvement in our ability to put the mother and patient at ease," Knupple says.
No dangers have been reported with the device. The only difficulty is keeping it in place because the baby can move around. The monitor is approved only for full-term, single pregnancies, not multiples. Studies on premature births are underway. More than 100 hospitals across the country are now using the monitor.
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