Fetal distress during labor Fetal distress during labor Fetal distress can occur for a variety of reasons during labor and delivery and some causes are more urgent than others. How your health care provider handles it is key to what the outcome will be. What fetal distress is, is a baby's oxygen supply through the placenta and umbilical cord being compromised and causing heart decelerations or inactivity. Babies who are doing well in utero have strong, stable heart rates, even with contractions, and show increased activity to appropriate stimulus. Babies in distress will respond in a variety of ways, including passing the first stool, which is called meconium.
Babies can also become distressed for low amniotic fluid and cease growing properly.
These cases usually call for a surgical delivery for the well-being of your child. When fetal distress occurs during labor, the action taken will depend on the situation you are in. If an induction was done and the baby is having heart decelerations below 90 and not recovering well, your provider will quickly decide if a c-section would be the best option for delivery. Once a baby's oxygen supply becomes compromised, it can be just minutes before a delivery needs to take place to birth a healthy baby with no respiratory difficulties. If you go into labor and your water breaks with your baby having immediate decelerations that are not responding well, a c-section will also be considered strongly.