Your baby's heart rate is an indication of how well your baby is
dealing with labor and it is monitored at regular intervals,
called intermittent monitoring. If a problem is found or you
have a high-risk pregnancy, then you may be advised to have
fetal electronic monitoring, in which your baby's heart rate and
your contractions are monitored continuously by a electronic
fetal heart monitor (see External fetal monitoring). All the
information about your labor is recorded on a chart, called a
labor graph (see External fetal monitoring). This is done using
a handheld battery-operated device known as a Doppler sonicaid,
which is held against your abdomen to listen to your baby's
heartbeat. When you are pushing in the second stage of labor,
the fetal heart needs to be monitored more frequently. In this
type of fetal monitoring, two devices monitor your baby's heart
rate and the strength and frequency of your contractions. Your
baby's heart rate is monitored with a circular ultrasound-like
device. If you want, you