The test involves attaching one belt to the mother’s abdomen to measure fetal heart rate and another belt to measure contractions. Movement, heart rate and “reactivity” of heart rate to movement is measured for 20-30 minutes. If the baby does not move, it does not necessarily indicate that there is a problem; the baby could just be asleep. A nurse may use a small “buzzer” to wake the baby for the remainder of the test.
A NST may be performed if:
- You sense that the baby is not moving as frequently as usual
- You are overdue
- There is any reason to suspect that the placenta is not functioning adequately
- You are high risk for any other reason
The primary goal of the test is to measure the heart rate of the fetus in response to its own movements. Healthy babies will respond with an increased heart rate during times of movement, and the heart rate will decrease at rest. The concept behind a non-stress test is that adequate oxygen is required for fetal activity and heart rate to be within normal ranges. When oxygen levels are low, the fetus may not respond normally. Low oxygen levels can often be caused by problems with the placenta or umbilical cord.
A reactive non-stress result indicates that blood flow (and oxygen) to the fetus is adequate. A nonreactive non-stress result requires additional testing to determine whether the result is truly due to poor oxygenation, or whether there are other reasons for fetal nonreactivity.
In this case, Eli gets NSTs due to his HLHS. These babies tend to get more stressed as they get closer to birth. Less room to move, and the good side of his heart will start to work harder, therefore, putting more stress on his little self. They also tend to stop growing in utero, so this is also being monitored at the same ime before the NSTs are given. Those are called Biophysical profiles.
Thats why I get so many cute little profile pics of him weekly :)
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