Question about Fetal Monitering for OB clinicals

[Nurse2BinNC]

Cross post from OB/GYN board.

We are doing our Maternal-Newborn rotation this semester, I am so excited cause this is where I want to work. Since I am so interested in this field of Nursing I want to know everything that there is to know. I have been studying fetal monitoring strips and Know that Variable Decelerations are caused by Umbical Cord compression. Today in class we were talking about Prolapsed Cord and the Teacher kept saying that this would show as a Late deceleration. I understood late decels to mean Uteroplacental Insufficiency. Our book said that Prolapsed cord would show Variables, When I questioned my teacher in reference to this, she stuck with her explanation that it would show as late decels. Help, I thought I had it all figured out, but Now she has totally confused me. I understood that a Late decel is a gradual deceleration of the fetal heart beat, whereas a Variable is a Rapid Deceleration. Please Help.

PS. If any of you could recommend any good web sights in reference to OB Nursing, I would be greatly appreactive.

[anitame]

Tammy,

You're right. A prolapsed cord will have variables, usually deep ones, because of cord compression, like you said. Here's a link to the sign-up page for a list serve that I belong to specifically for labor and delivery and mother/baby nurses. Some of the stuff will be more complicated than you're looking for but a LOT of it will be very helpful. It's a very evidence-based list, so you'll get lots of resources that should be helpful.

http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=pnatalrn&A=1

Anita