Re: [ozmidwifery] Pinnards v's dopplar

[Marilyn Kleidon]

I take my hat off to you if you can use a pinards with the woman standing in labour. I feel I can use one well and reliably but like I said earlier only with the woman in some kind of supine position. Maybe that is because i am not just listening for a heartbeat but like you described listening through and after a contraction to see how the baby is reacting. This can be hard even with an Allen's fetoscope when not in a supine position. Not all women however want to hear the heart-tones during labour so I bought a doppler with head phones so that only i can hear it if this is requested by the mum. My daughter worked for a year with midwives in Ghana and all they had were pinards and the women lay down when the midwives had to listen, some midwives chose to listen with their ear to the woman's belly, but again the women lay down. However, they rarely listened during second stage mainly because there wasn't much they could do where they were if concerns were detected. Fortunately most second stages were pretty fast.   marilyn ----- Original Message ----- From: Andrea Quanchi To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 10:23 AM Subject: [ozmidwifery] Pinnards v's dopplar Sally, I also have a pinnards that I use from time to time but I also use my dopplar. What I find is that there are times when one is more appropriate than the other. I find that to use the pinnards effectively I need to have the woman stationary ans in labour that proves tricky especially through contractions where as I can listen to the foetal heart through contractions easily by following the woman around. I can also listen to the FH underwater which I couldn't do. In other words it allows me to monitor the FH as I need/want to while allowing the woman to do what she needs/wants to. I agree using a Pinnards is a definite skill that needs to be practiced regularly. (I remember my OB used to listen with a stethescope and then offer it to me to listen and I could never hear it.) I prefer to listen to the FH for longer periods less often and find that to do this with the pinnards means asking the woman to be still, either lying down or upright or else I only hear it intermittently which I feel doesn't give me the information that I require. Sure that tells me the baby is alive but not how it is reacting to the changes in its environment. I also find that many woman and their families if given the choice, choose the dopplar because they like ti hear it. The woman don't need you to listen to it at all during pregnancy, They know mostly that their baby is OK because they feel it move and know it is growing but they still ask to listen to it and ask for it when their children, partners and parents are there. Like all things it is a choice that we all make in this high tech world in which we live like sitting in front of a computer screen and talking on my mobile phone that i wonder how I ever survived without. Imagine trying to run a solo independent practice without a mobile phone?????? Andrea Quanchi On Tuesday, January 21, 2003, at 10:01 PM, Sally Williams wrote: Duck Aviva!!   A pinards is the 'ear trumpet' that was used to listen to the baby's heart beat before the invention of sonicaids and monitors. I have a beautiful hand turned pinards made from ash. Sadly many 'modern' midwives don't have the comfidence to use one.   Sally ----- Original Message ----- From: Aviva Sheb'a To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 11:09 AM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Had a win today OK, wot's pinards? (Is it so obvious I need to duck?) Aviva ----- Original Message ----- From: Sally Westbury To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 9:06 AM Subject: RE: [ozmidwifery] Had a win today That is fantastic! I use my pinards for all my antenatal visits too, as I don't like to put electronic gadgets near a developing and sensitive baby Sally Westbury Homebirth Midwife   ---   Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.443 / Virus Database: 248 - Release Date: 10/01/03