Contraction monitors
So today I had to have a contraction stress test (which was not nearly as bad as I expected). I was already having *some* contractions on my own but they did give me Pitocin (blech) to make them more frequent. My contractions had a very wide range of numbers on the monitor. When looking for info elsewhere, I saw somebody say that those things only can measure if a contraction is happening -- not how strong it is -- but my numbers seemed to correlate exactly with the pain.
So my question. How high do the numbers on those things go? What is considered a strong contraction?, etc. Any info or experience you have.
My painful ones were up into the 170s/180s (and these were the ones I was having *without* the Pitocin...strange) but, as I am not in active labor right now, I figure it must get worse? However, the only other site where I found an answer to this sort of question, the few people who responded listed relatively low numbers. Maybe the monitors are different?
Re: Contraction monitors
I'm going to be annoying and tack on another question here.
And if the monitors *can't* really measure intensity, how can the test accurately tell whether the baby can handle the stress of labor and real contractions? Because most of the ones I had felt like baby contractions....
Not sure what monitor they had you on....for both of my labors the readings during contractions ranged from 0-100 (100 when i was pushing)
they are not really looking at how intense your contraction is (the number on the screen) but are looking for the pattern, how long is the cx, the peak, how long between cx, etc
They can tell if baby can handle a contraction (and labor) because they look for baby's heart rate reaction during/after a contraction
i agree with this.
Thanks.
I knew they were looking at the baby's heart rate in response to the contractions, it just didn't make sense to me how handling a little contraction well could indicate that the baby would successfully handle ones that were much bigger and stronger (if there is no measure of intensity). It doesn't seem to be an accurate mirror of labor, because hey, I could handle those little ones just fine too haha.
Haha, nope. Baby's heart rate stayed around the 150s for the most part. Contractions went from 30s or so to 180s...
ETA: The strip of paper, I think, only went to 100 -- after that it was off the strip. But to look at the monitor it showed the higher numbers.