Anyone heard of this...

[spiritedbirth]

I FIND THIS ******** AND NO NEED PROCEDURE TO BE AWFUL. I HAVE STARTED THIS THREAD SO PREGNANT WOMEN CAN READ ABOUT ONE OF THESE INTERVENTIONS WHICH I FEEL IS NOT MENTIONED A LOT..

MIGHT BE SOMETHING TO PUT ON YOUR BIRTH PLAN AS A PROCEDURE YOU DO NOT WANT




Internal monitoring differs from external monitoring. Instead of both leads being strapped to the outside of the woman's body, the Doppler lead is replaced by a smaller lead that is placed inside the woman's vagina and attached to the head of the baby. The internal lead is called a 'fetal scalp electrode' (or FSE). It is only used to monitor the baby's heart rate during labour, usually if external monitoring is not being reliable (but sometimes if the caregiver prefers internal to external monitoring).

A fetal scalp 'clip', or electrode, is a small, circular, corkscrew-shaped needle attached to a coated wire. The clip is covered with a long, protective, flexible, plastic covering and guided up through the mother's vagina by the caregiver doing an internal examination. This procedure should not be any more uncomfortable than a normal vaginal examination. The waters need to be broken to attach an FSE to the baby's head. If they are not already broken, this will need to be done to allow the electrode to be attached.


The needle is gently rotated into the skin on the baby's scalp (or bottom if the baby is breech). The internal electrode monitors the baby's heart rate more accurately than an external Doppler. Once the clip is attached, the plastic cover is removed, leaving just the wire.

The lead is then plugged into the monitor to produce the readouts.



HOW CAN A NEEDLE WHICH IS IN THE SHAPE OF A CORKSCREW BE GENTLY PLACE INTO THE BABY'S SCALP????...:no:

[onemummmy]

this happened to my baby...

[spiritedbirth]

I am so sorry one mummy It is not to make you feel bad just to point out what could happen if you let the hospital system control your birth!!

I feel women should know, it is not just your baby either, it is happening every day in hospitals everywhere..

Hugs to you:kiss:

[onemummmy]

I didnt really let them so to speak, if you have had an intervention riddled birth you know they use scare tactics and do things without you knowing & explaining things. I didnt know any of what they were doing at the time because I was strapped to a bed and totally out of it. I dont remember giving consent for anything, as far as Im aware walking through that door was consent enough for them.. Thanks for the hugs though :)

[spiritedbirth]

I didnt really let them so to speak, if you have had an intervention riddled birth you know they use scare tactics and do things without you knowing & explaining things. I didnt know any of what they were doing at the time because I was strapped to a bed and totally out of it. I dont remember giving consent for anything, as far as Im aware walking through that door was consent enough for them.. Thanks for the hugs though :)

God that is so wrong isn't it? I was at a birth recently when they said to Mum 'we are just going to attach this little moniter to the babys head' I explained everything to Mum and of course she declined..

I am sorry I had to bring it up..but who else is going to..not the hospital!! they will just do it without consent as you have already explained.

[onemummmy]

yes they will sadly. And what a crock saying 'we are just going to attach this little moniter to the babys head' like its no big deal! If they were honest about how it goes into the babies head I think women would be kicking them away.

[shed]

Yes, I have heard of this. I have seen what it does to the baby's head as well.

Not something I would want. They can shove it up their own....

A doppler is good enough. You can hear the heart rate enough for the purpose.

You don't need to hear every single heartbeat anyway. I didn't let them put the doppler on after each contraction, only in between. Bossy britches ay, lol. oh well.

Onemummy, you know its not your fault. Its just the poxy system. That's why its important that the word gets out, but I know that you 'get' that

[missie_mack]

Yes its a awful thing. Ours wasnt a corkscrew it was a black ring. After they pressured me into having the ring in they then told me I couldn't use the bath as it would corrode the cable. I was really cranky about it because I had made it very clear that I intended to use the bath- infact they had already run me a long bath before they hooked me up :mad:

Worst yet they narrowly missed my DS' ear and scarred his head :banghead:

Never again :no:

[abiishu]

My DD had one of these put on her head too. They said it won't hurt bub and it won't leave a mark...

She still has a mark on her head, she's nearly 8 months old! :eek:

Makes me so sad and angry about my birth all over again :crying:

Maybe it is better to be safe than sorry, they thought bub was in distress and hence all the monitoring, but I just knew she was ok. I was never worried about her at all during my whole labour (and it was long!!)

Next time I am hoping to trust my own instincts a lot more, and escape from all the stupid hospital interventions... which all seem to be sugar-coated for women in labour, don't they?

Rant over.

[shed]

Next time I am hoping to trust my own instincts a lot more, and escape from all the stupid hospital interventions...

You go girl!!! :smiliedance:

Music to my ears!! :D

[Milk_Monkey]

Just wanted to say that i had one for DS. But i was made fully aware of what it involved in my hospital antenatal classes. And i knew what they were doing at the time. The mark it left on his head was tiny and disappeared long before the pricks left by blood tests and other needles.

For a birth with complications, it gave me the opportunity to have a vaginal birth, and made me less restricted than normal monitors. In other circumstances, the doctors may have pushed for a C-sec.

It's wrong that women arent being made aware of the proceedure when it is done to them, and like most intervention is probably used unnecessarily too often, but that doesnt mean that it doesnt have a legitimate purpose and benefit.

[abiishu]

Thanks Shed! :goodvibes:

[BreithCuidiu]

This is as common as the episiotomies that apparently don't happen much anymore...

Another disrepectful indignity to babies and their parents.

I hope that you can heal and next time (if there is one) that you can give birth safely and with trust in yourself and birth. :hugs:

[Sophiebear]

...

It's wrong that women aren't being made aware of the procedure when it is done to them, and like most intervention is probably used unnecessarily too often, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have a legitimate purpose and benefit.

I agree!

Sophiebear

[tootiredtosleep]

They wanted to put one on DD and I refused. I was hooked up to lots of other monitors and felt that they were more than enough. It was probably the only thing that I was consulted on .. internals, drips etc they just went ahead and did.

[moochymoo]

My DD has this. They decided to do this as external monitors were not picking up her heart rate reliably and it was dipping to less than 50 beats per minute :eek:
They asked my consent and thoroughly explained the procedure. As far as i was concerned at the tmie - it saved my babies life and it also saved me from having a caesarian as they quickley managed to get an accurate idea of her heart rate and delivered her rapidly. Yes it was high intervention (there were many other things they did too, but all with my consent) but i have a live baby to show for it! I am glad they did it, rather than not actually noticing her heart rate was dropping so quickley. She had a little cut on her head which disapeared within days. The bruise on her face from the forceps was much, much worse i can tell you!! :(
I did have a high intervention birth, but this fetal scalp monitor was one of the things among other things they did - which saved my babies life. Sometimes there is a need for such intervention, well it was in my case anyway.:)

[sockstealingpoltergeist]

They did it to my first baby as well- I didn't have a clue what they were doing.
However luckily they did as my baby ended up in danger and I had to have an emergency C section.
Still all women should know what is happening to them and their babies at all times.

[HunterzMummy]

OMFG - This happened to my son BUT they NEVER told me it is a needle in his head WTF i feel so violated i cant believe this happened. I was under the understanding it was just something that stuck to the bubs head not screwed into it. He is now 14 months and i never knew :barf::crying::crying::crying:

[Ana Gram]

They did this to mine too but did not explain what they were doing at all. And I didn't sign anything to allow it, they just told me that was what they were doing.

[Hokey Pokey]

My nephew had that done, I had no idea it was a needle as such, I just thought it was something stuck to the scalp..

[naiwen]

OMG my son never had this (because I never dilated) but... if they think a baby is in distress, isn't putting a wire into it's scalp causing the poor thing pain before it's even born going to make any distress worse?

[spiritedbirth]

Ladies I have not posted this information on here to make anyones decision on having a scalp moniter put onto their baby feel bad or full of guilt..you shouldn't. If you were not made aware of this procedure and what it entails. it is not your fault. Sometimes in an extreme emergency too, it can be necessary. I do feel it is overused though.

I know in a hospital setting you trust your care providers and they should know best. Well you would hope so..

Anyway I did it for awareness so other pregnant mums on here know next time they here the this term Scalp moniter or electrode that sometimes even if it is necessary that might want to ask if there is an alternative to use instead of a scalp electrode.

I use the term BRAN

B-what are the benefits of the procedure?
R-what are the risks of the procedure?
A-is there an alternative?
N-what will happen if we proceede in doing nothing?

People say to me though " But it was an emergency, I did not have time to ask questions" I feel in Childbirth if it was an extreme emergency they would not be asking for your consent on anything. The red button would be pushed and you or your babys life would be saved!!

So basically if they have time to ask for your consent on anything in Childbirth you have time to ask questions..

Hope this all helps

Becky:)

[PaperTiger]

OMG my son never had this (because I never dilated) but... if they think a baby is in distress, isn't putting a wire into it's scalp causing the poor thing pain before it's even born going to make any distress worse?

Yes this often does happen. The scalp electrode is attached to the mothers leg by a wire and as the mum moves around it can and does pull on the clip attached to the babies head.
The metal corkscrew clips are about the size of a small staple, so if anyone wants to feel how that would be to a baby, well all they need do is get a staple and try screwing it into the top of their head....youch! :(

[~Emmylou~]

Ugh yes I've seen this offered to/used in a few labours now.

As far as it having legitimate benefit. Highly debatable.

It's simply another form of continuous monitoring. And continuous monitoring has been proven repeatedly and in multiple studies to increase your risk of caesarean without doing a damn thing to improve outcomes for babies.

The literature on continuous EFM is literally overwhelming and it is simply mindboggling that its use is still so prevalent.