"drop in baby's heartrate"

[FoxintheSnow]

When I was younger and I heard someone had a csection it was almost always because the baby was breech. Over the past few years or almost every single person I meet or see on tv who had a csection say it is because of a "drop in the baby's heartrate" What is the story with that... What is causing these drops and are these csections necessary....

[Kappa]

I'm not sure, but my guess that it has to do with inductions/augmentations causing unnatural contractions that are intolerable for the baby. Also, because of the litigation climate, the standard of care has become to section anyone who is showing an imperfect heart tracing, whether it is a pattern that's established, or if the monitor (gasp) may be imperfect at detecting. I'm sure some one here will have more ideas!

[SublimeBirthGirl]

What we truly understand about patterns in fetal heart tones coupld probably fit on the head of a pin. I'm sure Pit doesn't help matters. How often is "fetal distress" diagnosed from heart tones, only for the baby to be born with very normal Apgars?

[paphia]

I'm pretty sure decels are normal when baby is being pushed out - it's just important that the heart rate goes back up. My OB was freaking out that my dd was doing that (hmm, right after she told me she couldn't deliver the baby with me pushing on my hands and knees and had me get in a semi-sitting position which compressed my pelvis) and said I had to push her out quickly. My doula later said it's pretty common and not an indication (necessarily) that the baby is in distress. I'm sure there's a more "professional" opinion out there on it but I'm not sure where to find the info.

[bobandjess99]

When you were younger, (not sure how long ago that was....) chances are the stupid idiotic fetal monitor was not yet "standard" practice. C/S have risen dramatically since then. Like a pp said, we don';t REALLY know what a "healthy" fetal heartrate pattern isin labor, and so, like most everything they do, the docs decided out their butts what "normal" was going to be, and anything that deviates from that is grounds for a C/S.

[pinksprklybarefoot]

This is a good question. I wound up pushing my ds out in 15 minutes because they were concerned about decels. I did have pre-eclampsia, so that may have compounded their worry. But my mw kept saying "this baby needs to be born," and I was so afraid of winding up with a caesarean birth that I did everything in my power to ensure a vaginal birth.

But since then I have wondered if they were concerned about something real, or if it was just typical hospital birth bs.

FWIW, though, my mw was really not all that keen on fetal monitoring during an uncomplicated birth. I only had the monitor due to the pre-e. She said that she could tell a heck of a lot more from a woman's face than she could from a monitor strip.

[phoebemommy]

I've wondered about this, too. When I was in transition I was starting to kind of hyperventilate my way through the contractions rather than taking the long breaths I had been. My midwife put the doppler on me to find a drop in the baby's heartrate (which I could hear, too, it was down to like nothing), and she told me this meant I needed to take deep breaths. Indeed, once I did, his heartrate returned to normal.

I'm sure there are variant reasons for fetal heartrate decels, but I've never hear of somebody's OB telling them to breathe deep to make it better. In fact, it seems like some people are actually instructed to take short fast little breaths (that TV sitcom labor breathing, you know what I mean?).

[True Blue]

Both of my kids had decels, and I've never had a csection. My DS was born in a hospital with a medical midwife, and I wound up with an IV and internal monitor "to avoid csection". She threatened a csec once or twice but I pushed him out. They made me not push during some contractions and stuff...it was pretty awful. With DD, she was born at home with a wonderful mw...she didn't even tell me DD's hr was low, mostly bc she believed it was a fairly normal occurance. She did however gently urge me to push the baby out (without alarming me and or anyone else) just in case. She wanted her out quickly in case the decels indicated something other than what she was pretty sure it was -- head compression during contractions. Both kids were perfect.

[ecstaticmama24]

A baby's heartrate always fluctuates during birth, this is one reason MW's generally don't use a fetal heart monitor. The machine that reads a baby's heartrate is not necessarily the best indicator of fetal stress etc.,