Fundal Height Measurement: Maternity Nursing Review for NCLEX

this is Sierra threats Turner's Orion comm and in this video I want to be doing a quick review over fundal height

and this video is part of an Inc Lex review series over a maternity nursing and as always after you watch this video

don't forget to take the free quiz so let's get started what does fundal height and why do we care about it okay

the purpose of measuring of fundal height is to assess how well that baby is growing is the baby growing properly

depending on how far a long mom is in addition it helps us determine gestational age now how do we measure it

well to measure I want you to remember two important landmarks we want to remember the symphysis pubis and the

fundus of the uterus now the symphysis pubis is a cartilage joint found in between the pubic bone

and the fundus is the top part of the uterus and when we measure this we measure in centimeters so how do we do

this well first what you want to do is you want to lay the patient on their back now as mom is progressing in her

pregnancy baby's getting bigger everything is getting bigger and you want to watch out for hypotension

because whenever you lay her back that can compress those major vessels and she can have hypotension so watch out for

any dizziness she's reporting nausea feeling light-headed anything like that then what you want to do is you want to

get a tape measure and extend that tape measure from the symphysis pubis to the fundus and after doing this we want to

make sure that that location of that fundus or that measurement of that fundus matches the gestational age and

one thing to keep in mind is that after 20 weeks once that fundus goes past the belly button that the measurement will

actually start to match how far along the mom is give or take to centimeters so now I want to hit on some main

concepts that you'll want to remember for those maternity lecture exams and for the NCLEX exam and what I want you

to really remember are the locations of where this fundal height should be versus the weeks of pregnancy and what I

want to be doing is I'm going to be talking about during see and then I want to end it and wrap

it up with after pregnancy where that fundal height should be after the delivery of the baby because you want to

know that as well so first let's talk about during okay where should the fundus be at about 12 weeks of pregnancy

it should be above the symphysis pubis so about in this area right here remember the since this pubis was that

cartilage joint in between the pubic bone now as the pregnancy progresses and she hits about 20 weeks of pregnancy

where would you find the fundus at about the bellybutton so we know if we were looking at the fundus that if we find it

in between the symphysis pubis and the bellybutton but how far along is this mother she's about 12 to 20 weeks

because that's about the measurement so the halfway point between that let's say you have a test question and it says

you're looking at fundal height and you find it to be in between the symphysis pubis and the bellybutton about how far

along is she will it be about 16 weeks because that's our halfway point now as always talking about earlier after 20 to

36 weeks that fundal height will reflect the weeks of pregnancy give or take to centimeters so Popular's house question

would be you have a mother she's 26 weeks pregnant where would you expect that fundal height to be okay well it

can be plus or minus 2 ms centimeters so she's 26 weeks pregnant it can be anywhere between 24 centimeters to 28

centimeters so remember that key concept because tests love to ask that now at about 36 weeks pregnant where would you

expect the fundal height to be at the xiphoid process mom is probably gonna have some issues breathing cuz it's up

there where her lungs are a lot of crowding now after this time about room 37 to 40 weeks the fundal height is

actually going to regress it's going to go down about 4 centimeters now why is this why's it going to go

well body is preparing for birth the baby has settled down into the pelvic cavity

so the fungal height decreases a little bit during that time now let's look at where the fundal height should be after

pregnancy so after delivery of the baby until it gets back to its pre pregnancy size okay about one hour after birth you

should expect the fundal height to be at the bellybutton so if you have a test question that says mom is one hour

postpartum where should the fundal height be should be at the bellybutton now as time goes on the fundal height

will decrease one centimetre per day so it'll start decreasing one centimetre per day so if the woman is 24 hours

postpartum where should that fundal height be it should be one centimeter below the bellybutton she's 48 hours

postpartum it should be 2 centimeters below the bellybutton now where should it be back at the

symphysis pubis at 7 day so around 7 days this is about where you should expect it then the uterus is going to

start entering back into the pelvic cavity so you're not going to be able to palpate the fundus any longer this

occurs about 10 days to 14 days depending on the woman and at 6 weeks it should be back the uterus should be back

at its pre pregnancy sighs okay so that wraps up this review over fundal height thank you so much for watching don't

forget to take the free quiz and to subscribe to our channel for more videos