Monroe, Ga. (February 28, 2019) – Piedmont Walton Hospital is now offering remote monitoring for fetal heart rate and contraction activity of the uterine muscle for pregnant women in the hospital’s care.
The new monitoring tool enables patients to move and walk around their rooms or the labor and delivery unit area without needing to be connected to a bedside electronic fetal monitor, and it also keeps hospital staff updated with important vital signs used to monitor a mother and her unborn child.
“We’re pleased to be able to offer this new tool for the expectant mothers in our care,” said Lynda Moon, RN, clinical manager of labor and delivery at Piedmont Walton. “It’s now more common for mothers and families to look for more opportunities when it comes to their birthing experience. This new monitoring tool gives our patients more freedom of movement, it enables mobility, and it provides mothers with more birthing options.”
The monitor gives patients the freedom of movement, allowing them to move unassisted about their room while in the hospital while still getting the care needed, and it can also still do its job regardless of the laboring position a woman chooses.
Piedmont Walton’s new tool works by non-invasively measuring and displaying fetal heart rate and contraction activity of the uterine muscle through a patch or pod device on a pregnant women’s skin surface. This allows for the electronic fetal monitor tracing to be recorded and displayed without the straps traditionally used to secure the monitor.
Information that’s picked up by the monitor is seamlessly transmitted to the hospital’s system, providing hospital labor and delivery staff real-time surveillance of their patients.
“It’s a really neat tool that allows us to focus on the patient, which is what’s most important,” Moon said. “There aren’t wires involved, and we don’t need separate monitoring devices to keep track of things like heart rate and other vital signs. It allows our labor and delivery staff to focus on patient care, rather than the technology.”