As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. If you’re a new labor nurse, you’ll likely have to pass a proficiency test in order to get your official license. This usually involves monitoring a pre-recorded birth video, and you need to meet certain criteria in order to pass. One such criteria is being able to identify if the mom is having contractions or not. Unfortunately, there are many people who find it difficult to tell if someone is having contractions on a monitor because it’s quite an ambiguous indication. That’s why this article will go through all the different factors that make up whether or not someone has contractions. Read on to discover what you need in order to be confident whether or not someone is indeed having contractions.
How To Fake Contractions On Monitor
Know Your Monitor and Check Your BPM
If you’re going to go to the trouble of faking contractions on a monitor, you should at least know what your monitor will be looking for. For the most part, monitors look for five things: – Your baby’s heart rate – Your abdominal contractions – Your blood flow – Your oxygen levels – Your fetal position If you know these things, you can fake your monitor as accurately as possible. First and foremost, you’ll want to check your baby’s baseline heartbeat. If your baby has a certain rate that’s drastically higher or lower than normal, that could be a sign that something is wrong. If your baby has a low heartbeat, that could be a sign that they’re in distress or have gone into distress sometime during the day. It’s very rare for a baby to have a high heart rate, although it does happen sometimes. You’ll want to call your caregiver if your baby’s heart rate is significantly higher than normal.
Wear Tight, Light-Colored Clothing
Most of the time, the clothing you’re wearing is not taken into account when monitoring your contractions. However, if you want to fake a stronger and more consistent contraction, wearing a pair of tight underwear or leggings and a tight tank top (preferably light-colored) can help you get the desired effect. Tight clothing can help you create a strong and steady contraction in your abdominal muscles, which the monitor will then read as a strong contraction. If you want to go the extra mile, you can use a hair tie to pull your underwear as tight as possible. What’s more, wearing a tighter-fitting shirt will make it easier to monitor your baby’s heartbeat and your blood flow. When it comes to the material of your clothing, it’s best to wear something light-colored. Wearing darker colors can make it harder for your doctor to see your baby’s heartbeat.
Remember to Breathe
When you’re faking contractions, you want them to be as consistent and as strong as possible. One way to do this is by consciously thinking about your breathing during the process. When you inhale and exhale deeply, you can make your abdominal contractions stronger. When you’re faking contractions, it’s a good idea to make each controlled breathing session about two to three minutes long. If you do this throughout the day, monitoring staff will likely assume that you’re in early labor. If your contractions are particularly close together, you can also try holding your breath for a few seconds. This can sometimes trigger a contraction if you’re close to going into labor naturally.
Fake a Strong, Steady Pulse
Another way to convince your monitor that you’re in early labor is by increasing your pulse. The average person’s pulse rate is between 60 and 80 beats per minute, but you can increase yours significantly to mimic the sensation of a strong contraction. If you want to increase your pulse rate, it’s best to practice doing so ahead of time. Try taking deep breaths and increasing your heart rate until you reach the desired BPM. Your pulse can also be a useful tool when you want to slow your contractions down.
Don’t Forget the Noise and Smell Effect
Some labor and delivery units will turn on a machine that produces white noise in an effort to soothe the laboring mother and her baby. If you want to fake contractions, you can try using a white noise machine of your own. You can use any white noise machine, including a portable fan, an air purifier, or a radio with static. This is a sneaky way to get the monitoring staff to think that you’re going into early labor. The white noise will cover up the sounds of your whimpering and moaning, and it will also help your contractions seem more consistent because they’ll be drowned out. Smell is another way you can use to help fake your contractions. If you’ve ever been around someone who was in early labor, you probably noticed a distinct smell. The smell is produced by a hormone called alpha-hydroxy, which is also present in your sweat. When you want to try and fake contractions, make sure to wear scented clothing and/or use an air freshener to cover up your natural smell. You can also try spraying a perfume on yourself, although this may not be as effective.
Shake Up Your Act With Some Props
To make your faking contractions even more convincing, you can use a few different props to make the process easier. These include: – A mirror – A blanket – A pillow For the mirror, you can use a small hand mirror or a regular mirror to make it easier to see your baby’s heartbeat and blood flow. For the blanket, you can use a light blanket to keep your legs warm and make them easier to monitor. Finally, the pillow can help you mimic strong and consistent contractions. When you’re faking contractions, it’s best to lie on your side with your knees bent and a pillow under your belly. Using the pillow to elevate your belly is the easiest way to do this.
Mislead With a False Timing Event
If you want to make your faking contractions even more convincing, you can try triggering a false timing event. When monitoring your baby’s heartbeat, doctors will look for a few key things, including the baby’s heart rate, your blood flow, and your baby’s position. For each of these things, there’s an “ideal” time frame. For example, your baby’s heartbeat shouldn’t be more than 100 beats per minute or less than 60 beats per minute. The same goes for your blood flow. When you fake contractions, you can try triggering these false timing events. For example, if your baby’s heartbeat is between 80 and 100 beats per minute, you can try bringing it down to 60 beats per minute by consciously slowing down your own heartbeat. If your blood flow is a bit too low, you can try bringing it up to the desired level by increasing your heartbeat.
How To Know If Someone Is Having Contractions On A Monitor
Dilation
When the cervix is dilated, it takes a long time for the cervix to open. If a baby is not in the pregnancy, then there can be no labor contractions. When labor is starting, however, there are labor contractions. These contractions are like cramps that come and go. This is what makes labor different from cramps. Not only does the cervix take a long time to dilate, but sometimes it does not completely dilate when labor starts. This means that you will have some contractions that do not come and go like regular cramps do.
The Baby Moves
When you feel your baby move in your belly or when you see him or her moving on the monitor screen, this means your water has broken and you are at the beginning of labor. You can also feel him or her moving by doing pelvic exams on yourself or others who may be pregnant at home since these exams are normal during pregnancy.
The Baby’s Heartbeat Becomes Stronger
When you feel the baby move in your belly, or when you see him or her moving on the monitor screen, this means that your water has broken and that labor has started. Sometimes a woman can feel her baby move before she feels any contractions. When this happens, it is a sign that the baby is close to being born. The heartbeat is not strong enough to tell you when labor has begun; however, it can be used as an indicator of when labor may be starting soon.
Key Indicators Of Contractions While Monitoring
- There is a significant increase in the number of contractions (nearly 3-5 times) in the section of text that you are monitoring.
- The number of contractions increases by 5 or more over time.
- The average number of contractions per section is between 3 and 5.
- The average number of contractions per sentence is between 0 and 2.
- There are no more than 2 distinct sections in which the number of contractions increases by 5 or more over time or the average exceeds 4 (or 5).
- There are no sections in which there is a drop below 3 or no increase over the course of your monitoring period for at least 1 month (4 to 6 months).
Bottom Line
Labor can be a scary experience, but it’s also a very exciting experience for parents of newborns. It’s important to know how to tell if someone is having contractions on a monitor, but it’s also just as important to know what happens when someone doesn’t have contractions. Make sure you’re looking out for all the indicators of contractions when you’re monitoring a woman who is in labor.
