Investment in new maternity equipment to monitor babies provides a better experience for women and birthing people
Women and birthing people at Royal Derby Hospital and Queen's Hospital Burton will now benefit from an innovative piece of equipment that can monitor a baby's heart rate wirelessly during labour, meaning pregnant people can be more mobile and use a birthing pool, creating a more personalised birth experience for everyone in our care.
The Trust has invested in telemetry, which is a wireless monitoring device that is used during labour to continuously monitor a baby's heart rate for women and birthing people who have risk factors identified during pregnancy. Traditionally, this is done by a Cardiotocography (CTG) belt which is secured around their bump with straps and connected to CTG machine with wires. The devices are not waterproof, can restrict movement and cannot be used in water therefore limiting the birthing options available to our patients.
The Telemetry kit uses the same belts but it connects to the CTG machine wirelessly, it is waterproof and can be used in a pool or bath, which can be a wonderful aid to a woman in labour and help form a positive birth experience, with the water acting as analgesia, a pain relief for the patient. The wireless connection also means women and birthing people can be more mobile during labour, if comfortable, while maintaining constant monitoring of the baby's heartbeat.
We have made lots of positive changes and improvements across our maternity and neonatal services to provide safer and more personalised care to women, birthing people and babies. One area of improvement work has been focused on how we monitor babies during pregnancy and labour and to support that work we have appointed a dedicated fetal monitoring lead midwife.
Jane Harrington, Fetal Monitoring Lead Midwife, said: "This is really good news for those coming to UHDB to have their baby and it means that even if pregnant people require continuous fetal heart monitoring, they have options and can develop a birth plan that is personalised to them.
"We have had a real team focus on fetal heart monitoring as it's a critical part of monitoring mum and baby during labour. Across the Trust we have implemented a full physiological approach to fetal monitoring. It focuses on each individual fetal journey and the expected physiological responses to stress in labour and offers an individualised and risk assessed understanding of each baby, ensuring escalation and intervention is appropriate for that women or birthing person."
We advocate and empower women and birthing people to be involved in choosing the most appropriate method of monitoring your baby by discussing the benefits and limitations of each of the methods. We have some telemetry devices at Royal Derby Hospital and Queen's Hospital Burton so if you'd like to use them during labour, please speak to your midwife.
To find out more about the changes we have made across maternity and neonatal services at UHDB, you can read an open letter from our maternity leadership team >.