Stress Test?

MegSowers · January 2012

My OB said I'll start doing these at 34 weeks. What are they? How long do they take? Etc... thanks!

vtwd40 · January 2012

I start mine in 2 weeks. From what I understand, they hook up your belly so they can monitor the baby's movement and heartrate. Sometimes they make you push a button when you feel the baby move, sometimes they don't. They're looking for the heartrate to go up when the baby moves, and then back down again. Then, they look for a certain number in a certain amount of time. I don't have much more because I had to have it explained to me too.

Taryn M · January 2012

Like PP said, it monitors your baby's heart rate to see if its going up/down properly. There is also a monitor that measures contractions (if you're having them). They usually take about 30 minutes and are pretty boring so you might want to take a magazine. :P

Breezy through life · January 2012

They are extremely boring, so either bring someone who will talk to you or a book/magazine. I had two on Monday, one at the doctor's office and then one at the hospital because the doctor's office one kept picking up my heartbeat when baby moved away from the monitor so my doctor was worried about dips. Trust me, two in a row is no fun. And for best results, you have to lay quite still, no adjusting your legs or pelvis.

PregsterDD · February 2012

I is actually called a Non-Stress Test or NST. If you have a high-risk pregnancy a prudent doctor will have you do these once or twice a week for the rest of your pregnancy. They are to verify fetal well-being at the time of the testing. They will alert you doctor as to any decrease in fetal movement, heart rate decelerations, contractions and can also provide insight into how much fluid is around your baby believe it or not. They are looking for the baby to have an increase in the fetal heart rate of at least 20 bpm, 2 times in a 20 min period. It takes 20-40 min and you may not always "pass" the test especially if you haven't eaten recently or had enough water to drink that day. If you don't "pass" the test they will perform a Bio-physical profile, or ultrasound to check the baby's movement, fluid level, tone and breathing. I work on a L+D unit where we do 10-15 of these tests a day. I enjoy performing these on my patients because I really get to know them and they become comfortable with our staff before that big day comes.

GoldenGibson · February 2012

This is my favorite test of the pregnancy so far They're really NBD and I'll just reiterate what some of the PPs said.

They tell you to eat a snack before the appt, they put you in a chair (at my hospital, a recliner) and hook two monitors up to your belly and monitor baby's HB for 20 min. They are looking for an increase in HR twice during that period in response to baby's movements. If they don't get it, they extend the test for another 20 minutes and offer you some juice to get the babe moving. I got to just chill and watch TV during mine, and the ladies monitoring the results are AMAZINGLY nice at my hospital. They also took my temp and BP.

I'm not sure how often this is done, but once a week folling my NST I have to get an ultrasound to measure fluid levels. Our hospital is SUPER slow and after the NST and ultrasound I had been at the hospital for 2 1/2 HRS!!! Hopefully you won't have to deal with this, but that's basically our entire evening every Monday.

mlee116 · February 2012

I just had my second one today. I'm not going to repeat everything the PP's already said, but I will say to bring something to do and try to get in a comfortable position before starting. Today I was lying flat on my back and my back starting hurting so bad. I felt much better after I was moved into a reclining position. Otherwise, there's not much to it

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