A pain less method to study the Fetal Heart Beat

How to monitor Fetal Heart Beat?

Monitoring of the fetal heart beat is very important in the management of pregnancies in women. The study of fetal heart is required to study the condition of the fetus and its blood supply to assess whether a Caesar is required or not .Up till now there are several methods to monitor the fetal heart sounds.

Some important are the following:

1. External fetal monitoring:

In this a device is strapped around the abdomen of he pregnant woman along with a ultra sound transducer to detect the fetal heart beat.

2. Internal fetal monitoring:

In this method a clip is attached to the scalp of the fetus and the pulse rate is measured. This gives rather accurate reading of the heart than the ultra sound transducer. But the problem is the cervix should be dilated to provide an accessibility to attach the clip. The recent study done by the scientists of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that a new system was developed by them which is more non invasive, pain less and much cheaper than the traditional systems. This technique also cut down caesarian deliveries since the fetal condition can be studied more accurately. According to them this system will be available in two to three years for the clinicians.