Pregnancy And Baby Care Articles Pregnancy Tests

...is not receiving sufficient oxygen, due to problems related to the umbilical cord or the placenta. It can also highlight other kinds of fetal distress. An NST for pregnancy should be conducted when the woman is between 32 and 48 weeks pregnant. At times, an NST during pregnancy may be required for precautionary reasons, where a woman has experienced problems with a previous pregnancy, or suffers from any factors like intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) or diabetes. In such cases, the test can be used as early as the start of the third trimester, i.e. in the seventh month. Before the completion of 28 weeks, the fetus may not respond to the test protocol, as it may not have developed enough. An NST pregnancy test may be recommended if it is suspected that the baby is not moving as often as before.

NST Test in Pregnancy Preparation

The pregnancy NST will need to be conducted at your practitioner’s clinic. You will be asked to lie on a table or sit in a chair and the equipment used for fetal monitoring will be hooked to your stomach. The monitor is used to record the rate of the baby’s heartbeat, in conjunction with the uterine activity. This test normally lasts for anywhere between 20 and 30 minutes. At times, the baby may not move, simply because he or she is asleep. A small buzzer may be used, to wake up your baby to complete the rest of the test. A reactive result states that the flow of oxygen and blood to the fetus is sufficient. A non-reactive result may require further testing, to identify whether the baby is not reacting because of poor oxygen, or other reasons, like sleep patterns and the use of certain maternal drugs. Further tests required in case of a non-responsive result include a stress test, a biophysical profile or induction. These tests must be conducted in consultation with a qualified doctor.

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