foetal monitoring

[bletherer]

Hello all.
I've had 2 babies. My first was a mild shoulder dystocia with a 3rd degree tear. With the 2nd i intentionally stayed home till the last minute to avoid the constant foetal monitoring. .i felt this made the difference with my 2nd as I was able to move and get myself and the baby in a good position. 2nd Baby was born within 30 minutes of getting to hospital. .no tears..no issues!
now pregnant with 3rd.
Any advice on how to handle the midwives and the need for constant monitoring?

 

[MindUtopia]

You can always decline monitoring. It may be their policy to advise/request it, but it's always your right to say you don't want it or to say you're happy to have some monitoring but less frequently than they would otherwise advise, etc. Or like you did last time, just stay at home as long as possible if you don't want to feel like you need to have a debate over it in the moment. I had a home birth, but I didn't call the midwives until I was just about pushing. I loved having time at home by myself without the interruption and I noticed a definite difference when they arrived (labour stalled as they flapped about unpacking all their stuff). I think the usual recommendation in the UK is monitoring with a doppler every 15 minutes in the first stage and every 5 minutes in the second stage. I'm pretty sure that when I was pushing they weren't doing it every 5 minutes, I think it was still more like every 15, but it was still annoying and slowed things down - especially because they made me stand up every single time because they couldn't get their doppler to work if I was on my hands and knees. I would just put in your birth plan that you either don't want any monitoring or you want it only every so often. There is absolutely no reason (unless you're being induced and even then you can request periodic monitoring) for you to be hooked up to a monitor constantly. There is lots of research to show it doesn't improve birth outcomes and can cause problems just like you'd experienced with slowing labour, so I would just tell them what you want and there's lots of evidence to support this if you want to have a look around the internet. Anyway, your birth, your choice.

 

[BunnyN]

There is some good info here:
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/a-fi...er-quest-for-evidence-based-fetal-monitoring/

 

[amelia26]

Wow, is that true that 91% of women in the U.S. have continuous fetal monitoring? That's shocking.