Fetal Station Explained: Understanding Baby's Position in the Pelvis

hey everyone it's sarah thread sterner sorry and calm and in this video we're going to talk about fetal station and as

always whenever you get done watching this youtube video you can access the free quiz that will test you on this

content so let's get started what is fetal station well fetal means baby and station means

location or position so when we take that and put that together fetal station is where the baby's

presenting part is located in the pelvis well one the world is a baby's presenting part well it can be the head

it could be the foot or etc whatever structure is closest to the exit of the uterus now the exit of the uterus we're

talking about the cervix and we're particularly talking about the internal offs of the cervix this is like the exit

door for how that baby leaves that uterus and is born so we're talking about whatever structure is closest to

that and it's usually the head of the babies in the right position now let's talk about how fetal station is measured

well whenever we're looking at this measurement it is telling us how much really that baby has descended down in

that pelvis it's gonna tell us if the baby is engaged or if the baby is about to be born

let's us get ready to know that we need to be prepared for delivery of this baby so to help us measure it we're looking

at a specific landmark and I would remember this landmark it is called the ischial spines the ischial spines are

located in the pelvis they are bony promises that can be easily felt and what we do is we draw this pretend line

from the r is you'll spine to the left ischial spine and that's our starting point so what we're looking at are the

measurements above that ischial spine line and below that ischial spine line so the measurement is measured in

centimeters so we're gonna look at five centimeters above that is shield spine line and five centimeters below the

ischial spine line however we don't communicate that to each other like that or document we don't say five

centimeters to centimetres instead when we're talking about this fetal station we refer to it

in - numbers and plus numbers so for instance if the baby's presenting part is above this ischial spine line we

refer to it in those - numbers if the baby's presenting part is below the ischial spine line we report this as

positive or plus numbers now let's look at this illustration to help us further understand fetal station so we find our

ischial spines and you can see that in this illustration with the arrows is pointing out those bony prominences and

this is our starting point we would refer to this as fetal station 0 now there's some things I want you to

remember about fetal station 0 this is where we would refer to the baby as being engaged if they're presenting part

was located here whenever a baby is engaged this means that that presenting part has entered down into that pelvic

Inlet and it's at that issue spine line now for first-time mothers this happens around 38 weeks it's also referred to as

lightning or for your moms who've already had babies it can happen as late as whenever labor

starts so when looking at fetal station again we're looking at above that line and below that line so let's go above

that line so one centimeter above the ischial spine would be referred to as minus one a two centimeter measurement

above that line would be minus two and so forth until we get up to five now whenever we're looking below that line

the numbers are referred to as plus numbers so whenever we're talking about one centimeter below that line it would

be plus one two centimeters below plus two three centimeters plus three now whenever we getting start getting into a

fetal station of plus four plus five this is lighting us no.2 baby is held to be born and you want to be

prepared for delivery now how can you keep this plus and minus numbers right well how I like to think of it is like

this okay so we have our issues funds that is our landmark where we're starting at that's fetal station zero so

whenever we start getting into the plus numbers that is a good thing that's good for a moment because she's about to meet

baby baby is about to be born so that is a plus however whenever we're in those minus numbers we still have

some time before we can meet the baby so it's above that that means baby still more in that pelvic area and isn't ready

to make its entrance yet so hopefully if I can help you keep that straight now quickly let me quiz you on fetal station

okay so we have this illustration here look at a what would the fetal station be for a if we have the babies

presenting part at that a line well let's look at the ischial spine we know that starts at zero we're going above

the line so we're dealing with - numbers so we would count up that's about three centimeters so that would be minus three

okay so let's look at B what would be B what would the fetal station be there if the baby's presenting part was there

well if she'll spawn again we know that is zero so we're gonna count down because we're looking at below that line

so we're hitting the plus numbers because remember once baby starts getting down in this area that's a plus

sign for mom because she's about to meet her baby so we have one two that's two centimeters so it would be plus two

fetal station okay so that wraps up this review over fetal station and don't forget to access the free quiz that will

test you on this content