Electronic Fetal Heart Monitoring

Fetal Heart Monitoring

How To Prepare

You may be asked to eat a meal shortly before having a nonstress test, because digesting food often increases the movement of your baby.

If you are having a contraction stress test, you may be asked to not eat or drink for 4 to 8 hours before the test.

If you smoke, you will be asked to stop smoking for two hours before the external monitoring test because smoking decreases your baby's activity.

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Author:	Jan Nissl, RN, BS Sydney Youngerman-Cole, RN, BSN, RNC	Last Updated: September 5, 2006
Medical Review:	Tom Bailey, MD - Family Medicine Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH - Family Medicine Kirtly Jones, MD - Obstetrics and Gynecology
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