Medical knowledge concerning the benefits of the fetal heart rate monitoring has gone through countless advancement and changes during the past several years. Once this sophisticated procedure was introduced health-care providers hoped the widespread use of this revolutionary high-tech instrument would allow physicians and nursing staff to detect early signs of potential problems during labor and childbirth, prompting cesarean sections to prevent cerebral palsy. This disorder is linked to childbirth trauma, for instance improper dating of the pregnancy which can lead to over-gestation and even premature delivery. It can develop when the flow of oxygen as well as blood to the baby’s brain is disrupted during delivery. Luckily, a lot of delivery cerebral palsy risk factors are preventable if a doctor acts with care and prudence to appropriately and promptly prevent and treat these risk factors.

During the period of 1970s up to 1980s, physicians increased the number of C-sections based on fetal heart rate patterns assured they would dramatically reduce the rate of cerebral palsy.

However they were not so lucky. This innovative procedure has not lived up to that expectation and in fact has pretty much failed miserably. Back in the early period of 1970s the rate of C-sections was somewhere around five percent. By the 1990s, the rate of C-sections had risen nationwide to over amazing twenty percent!

On the other hand, new studies from many developed countries where this procedure has been widely used have revealed no decline in the rate of cerebral palsy. A lot of surveys comparing the standard method using a stethoscope to the sophisticated electronic fetal heart rate monitoring unfortunately fail to show any reduction in cerebral palsy. One research even indicated a slight increase in cerebral palsy among children who underwent this new procedure when compared to those managed by a more simple method. Naturally, this doesn’t mean that this procedure causes this disorder. But also this means that the fetal heart rate monitoring won’t stop neurological injury to a child or cerebral palsy.

Today, medical scientists understand that most children with worrisome fetal heart rate patterns well tolerate these patterns. However, children who are developmentally abnormal before labor starts will usually show abnormal heart patterns during labor which can prompt a C-section. Usually, the damage has been done inside the mother’s uterus before labor and not during the few hours of the labor and childbirth.

In conclusion, fetal hear rate monitoring process hasn’t dramatically reduced the rate of neurologic impairment in babies. On the other hand, this procedure has nearly eliminated fetal death during labor. Modern techniques help the baby delivery team to find out when the fetus appears not to be tolerating labor well and has to be delivered. Furthermore, this instrument can help physicians and nursing staff to detect alterations in the heart rate as well as the contraction pattern that indicates some other problems which could cause injury or even fatality. These problems are a fetal hemorrhage, prolapsed umbilical cord or even a placental abruption.

In a number of medical institutions, the picture right from a mother’s room can be simply transmitted to one central station where nursing staff can observe a bank of monitors. Therefore, a young mom-to-be can be assured that her precious child is being watched and changes are being documented even when the medical staff isn’t in the patient’s room.