MVU's?

[Tess RNC]

I've been a labor and delivery nurse a long time at one hospital. Recently I moved to another hospital where the nurses calculate MVU's for laboring patients. This is new to me and I'm wondering if this is something you do routinely and if it's really a benefit. I feel like it's a waste of time, but some of the doc's expect it.

[gypsyatheart]

MVU's or montevideo units are calculated when the woman has an IUPC in, internal pressure catheter. This is the only way you can determine MVU's. If the woman does not have internals then you can only really assess resting tone of the uterus. MVU's actually calculate the pressure between the peak of the ctx and resting tone..ie: 20, of the uterus. Most units have P&P in place stating that there needs to be a minimum range of MVU's in order to assess for adequate u/c's...say 180 MVU's. This is helpful when people are on pit, possible failure to progress, slow progress, difficulty assessing labor pattern, etc.

[SmilingBluEyes]

Counting MVU's is NOT a "waste of time" and is in fact, a valuable tool for documenting and acting on progress (or lack of it) in a laboring woman. I think it behooves you to learn to do this myself. I use this tool ALL the time when IUPC are in place.

[L&D_RN_OH]

We don't use them here. Our P&P for induction, gives a range for us to go by. UC q 2-3 min, 60-90 sec, and/or 40-60 mm HCG. This is based on the peak of contraction minus the baseline. But we don't actually calculate MVU's.

[rdhdnrs]

I LOVE MVUs. It is such a practical way to know what to do with your pitocin on some of those ctx patterns that look dysfunctional. I have delivered many women whose ctx patterns were coupling or tripling, etc, but had adequate MVUs. Most of our nurses don't use them, but I think everyone should.

[Dayray, RN]

I use them when I have an IUPC (which I rarely do). They are a great way to manage pitocin for those slow progressing inductions and if a patient does end up with Failure to progress it's a good tool for documenting this. Also they are helpful when you have a funky uterus or baby and want to make sure you use only enough pit to progress labor.

They have their place but I also see allot of nurses constantly requesting IUPC's on all patients, which I guess isn't terrible but I don't think it's necessary for everyone.

It's like allot of other things, useful but can be over used.

[mark_LD_RN]

it is a great way to assess adequacy of labor and monitorinr for hyperstim. if we have a patient that is not progressing welll despite what appears to be adequate labor. we may place IUPC and do MVUs to your suprise a lot of the time you will find what appeared to be and adequate labor pattern actuallly was not.:)