Fetal Heart Rate and Defects Essay Example for Free

Fetal Heart Rate and Defects Essay Electronic fetal heart monitoring is commonly used for tracking how well the baby is doing within the contracting uterus and for detecting signs of fetal distress. External fetal heart monitoring is performed by attaching external transducers to the mothers abdomen with elastic straps. The transducers use Doppler ultrasound to detect fetal heart motion, and the information is sent to the fetal heart monitor which calculates and records the fetal heart rate on a continuous strip of paper. More modern fetal heart monitors have incorporated microprocessors and mathematical procedures to improve the fetal heart rate signal and the accuracy of the recording. An echocardiography can be used before birth to accurately identify many heart defects. The mother can be treated with medications that may restore normal heart rhythm in the fetus if the test shows that a fetus’s heart is beating too fast or too slow (Emitting Waves, R.C., n.d.). The fetal heart starts as a tube which folds and fuses in a complex structure that results in a muscular pump with four chambers and four valves. It is not surprising that small errors in development can lead to a wide variety of structural abnormalities in the 4 chambers, the 4 heart valves, the veins and great arteries. During fetal monitoring, a nurse will evaluate the strip for continuity and adequacy for interpretation, identify the baseline fetal heart rate and presence of variability, determine whether there are accelerations or decelerations from the baseline, identify patterns of uterine contraction, and correlate accelerations and decelerations with the uterine contractions. This will allow the nurse to determine whether the fetal heart rate recording is reassuring, non-reassuring, or ominous (Childrens Heart Federation, n.d). Fetal Heart Rate and Defects The normal fetal heart rate is between 110 to 180 beats per minutes (BPM), but can vary. Fluctuations of the fetal heart rate (usually associated with fetal movement) during different periods of the day are common and often rise above 160, going as high as 180 to 190 and are considered normal. Listening to a normally beating heart using a fetal ultrasound Doppler as early as 8 weeks can offer reassurance and cut down on a lot of stress and help assure that the developing fetus is healthy. While miscarriage occurs in only about 15 percent of apparently normal pregnancies, it only occurs in about 1 percent of pregnancies where a normal heartbeat has been seen or heard (Medscape, n.d). Recent studies conclude that changes in pregnant womens heart rate and blood pressure due to chronic stress and anxiety can have an effect on the fetal heart rate. The study did not report any negative effects on fetal health but confirmed that emotional based changes in a womans cardiovascular activity c an have real-time effects† on a fetus. A previous study has shown that stress during pregnancy can cause an increase in the risk of low-birth weight and premature birth. More importantly, increased evidence suggests that pregnancy stress can actually affect the babys behavior and functioning later in life (NT: Detection Rate CHD, n.d.). The ability for expectant mothers to listen to the fetal heart rate with a fetal Doppler offers a safe method of early fetal bonding which was previously only available at prenatal appointments with a medical professional. With its approval for in home by the FDA expecting parents have increasingly been opting to rent or purchase fetal Dopplers to help relieve some of the stress associated with the unknowns of early and late pregnancy. Fetal Doppler rentals are currently available through many online retailers at very affordable rates. Fetal heart rate monitoring is the process of checking the condition of a baby during labor and delivery by monitoring his or her heart rate with special equipment. Electronic fetal heart rate monitoring (EFM) was first introduced at Yale University in 1958. Since then, continuous EFM has been widely used in the detection of fetal compromise and the assessment of the influence of the intrauterine environment on fetal welfare (Evans and Niswander, 2000). There are two methods of fetal heart monitoring in labor. External fetal monitoring is done through the skin and is not meant to be invasive. Sensitive electrodes (connected to monitors) are placed on your abdomen over conducting jelly. The electrodes can sense the fetal heart rate (FHR) and the presence and duration of uterine contractions. Usually, the results of this test are continuous and are printed out, or they appear on a computer screen. Internal fetal monitoring involves placing a electrode directly on the fetal scalp through the cervix. The health care provider may use this method of monitoring your baby if external monitoring is not working well, or the information is inconclusive. Both types of tests are performed to evaluate fetal heart rate and variability between beats, especially in relation to uterine contractions. The tests also indicate the frequency and strength of uterine contractions (Belmont, 1998). Fortunately, fetal heart monitoring tests can detect numerous abnormal situations or conditions during pregnancy, such as reduced blood flow to the developing baby (cord compression), block of electrical signals within the heart muscle, causing an altered heart beat (fetal heart block), incorrect positioning of the baby (fetal malposition), too little oxygen supply to the developing baby, suggest the presence of infection, too little oxygen exchange between the uterus and the placenta, fetal distress, placenta abruption, and severe anemia in the developing baby. Most common heart defects, such as holes between the chambers (atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect) and even more complex conditions such as transposition of the great arteries and tetralogy of Fallot, can be successfully managed after birth (Belmont, 1998). Many of the aforementioned situations detected during a fetal heart monitoring could mean that the baby has a congenital heart defect. There are many types of congenital heart defects which is why it is so important that the fetal heart monitoring be done before and during labor. A fetal heart defect means that the baby will be born with a problem in the hearts structure. Learning of the childs congenital heart defect can help to understand his or her condition and what you can expect in the coming months and years. Some congenital heart defects are simple and dont need treatment. Other congenital heart defects in children are more complex and may require several surgeries performed over a period of several years. Heart-related complications can be temporary or may affect the child long-term (Emitting Waves, R.C, n.d.). One examples of a congenital heart defect is pulmonary atresia, which is when no pulmonary valve exists, so blood cant flow from the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery and on to the lungs. The right ventricle acts as a blind pouch that may stay small and not well developed. The tricuspid valve is often poorly developed, too. An opening in the atrial septum lets blood exit the right atrium, so venous (bluish) blood mixes with the oxygen-rich (red) blood in the left atrium. The left ventricle pumps this mixture of blood into the aorta and out to the body. Pulmonary atresia occurs in about one out of every 10,000 live births (Pulmonary Atresia, n.d.). Another type of congenital heart defect is congenital heart block, when detected at or before birth in a structurally normal heart, is strongly associated with autoantibodies reactive with certain proteins. In this defect, the hearts electrical signal doesnt pass from the hearts own natural pacemaker in the atrium to the lower chambers. When this occurs, an independent pacemaker in the lower chambers takes over. The ventricles can contract and pump blood, but at a slower rate than the atrial pacemaker. Complete heart block is most often caused in adults by heart disease or as a side effect of drug toxicity. Heart blocks can be present at birth (Belmont, 1998). Continuous lumbar epidural anesthesia is commonly used for analgesic treatment during labor and delivery; It is still a matter of controversy whether epidural anesthesia has direct or indirect side effects on the fetus. It has been reported that local anesthetics can cause changes in the fetal heart rate patterns in the sense of direct myocardial side effects (Evans and Niswander, 2000). It is apparent that there are marked cardiovascular changes that occur in the fetus with a congenital heart defect compared with the normal healthy fetus. Without the use of fetal heart monitoring tests, we would be unable to determine if the fetus has a congenital heart defect which could drastically delay treatment of the condition. Treatment varies widely with the type of disease, the effect that pregnancy has on the disease, and the effect that the disease has on pregnancy. If it is the fetus that has a problem, serial ultrasounds may be performed. Fetal heart rate monitoring may be necessary, or amniocentesis may be required. In addition, it may be essential to give the mother medications to act on the baby (Belmont, 1998). Summary A fetal heart defect is an abnormality in any part of the heart that is present in an unborn child. Approximately 35,000 infants are born with heart defects each year in the United States. An echocardiography can be used before birth to accurately identify many heart defects. The mother can be treated with medications that may restore normal heart rhythm in the fetus if the test shows that a fetus’s heart is beating too fast or too slow. In most cases, scientists do not know what makes a baby’s heart develop abnormally, but genetic and environmental factors appear to play roles.

Hucks Contradiction in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

Huck's Contradiction in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn      Ã‚  Ã‚   In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huck was a boy who thought very little of himself, but had a huge impact on others.   His moral standing was based on what is easier, right or wrong.   He lived the way he wanted to live, and no one told him otherwise.   He had the adventure of a lifetime, and yet he learned along the way. Although Huck has certain beliefs about himself, his actions and decisions contradict these beliefs.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Huck may consider himself lazy, but in reality, he is a very hard worker.   At one point, Huck wants to get away from his father so he comes up with a scheme to fake his death and escape from his cabin:   "I out with my saw and went to work on that log again. I took the sack of corn meal and took it to where the canoe was hid and shoved the vines and branches apart and put it in. I had wore the ground a good deal, crawling out of the hole and dragging out so many things.   So I fixed that as good as I could from the outside. Then I fixed the piece of log back into its place. I took the ax and smashed in the door-I beat it and hacked it considerable, a-doing it.   I fetched the pig.and laid him down on the ground to bleed. Well, last I pulled out some of my hair, and bloodied the ax good, and stuck it on the back side, and slung the ax in the corner" (24).   If Huck were lazy, he would not have gone through all that trouble to escape, if he escaped at all.   A lazy person would have just stayed there and not worried about what happened.   At another point in the novel, Huck and a runaway slave, Jim, are on an island where th... ...x, James M. From Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor (Princeton University Press, 1966) "Southwestern Vernacular" pp. 167-184. Copyright @1966 by Princeton University Press. Rpt. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Ed. Claude M Simpson. Englewood Cliffs,N.J. 1968.    Fishkin, Shelley Fisher, Phd. "Teaching Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Finn", 1995, July Summer Teachers Institute, Hartford, Connecticut @1995    http://www.pbs.org/wgbn/cultureshorck/teachers/huck/essay.html    Leavis, F.R. "Three New Approaches to Huckleberry Finn". (London: Chatto and   Windus, Ltd., 1955) Rpt. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Adventures of  Ã‚   Huckleberry Finn Ed. Claude M Simpson. Englewood Cliffs,N.J. 1968.    Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.   

Courtroom Participants Professional Standards Essay

For the purpose of this paper I will be discussing the questions posed in the course syllabus by my professor: * Prosecutorial Misconduct   * Prosecutorial misconduct is best described as illegal acts utilized by a prosecutor to persuade a jury to wrongly convict an individual accused of a crime or securing a severe sentence that may not be justified towards the actual crime. Often times there are occurrences of individuals that are wrongfully convicted, many of these individuals are incarcerated for extended periods of time before their cases are even heard or brought before a jury. * Ineffective assistance by criminal counsel An attorney providing ineffective assistance can be considered as those occurrences when the service provided by an attorney to a defendant proves to be ineffective and in doing so, would be a violation of the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution. Ineffective assistance of counsel is defined in the Supreme Court’s ruling surrounding the landmark case of Strickland v. Washington (1984). In order for a defendant to prove ineffective assistance, the individual would first have to provide proof that demonstrates that his counsel’s performance was inefficient due to the attorney make a large number of errors. Secondly, the defendant must demonstrate that the attorney’s errors directly impacted the defendant’s case prejudicially. In this instance prejudice takes on the meaning of†¦.the trial would have resulted in a different outcome it not for the fact of the attorney’s errors resulting in the sentencing be affected. * Judicial misconduct Judicial misconduct refers to the judge’s conduct and the fact that they are constantly in the view of the public, so they are held to a higher standard in the area of respecting the individuals they interact with on a daily basis as well as all defendants that appear before them in court. * Real life stories My real life story on prosecutorial misconduct focuses on the case of Raymond Towler, who was convicted on the charge of rape of an eleven year old girl and completed 30 years of a sentenced life sentence trying to convince the courts of his innocence. Assistant District Attorney Bill Mason motto of â€Å"win no matter what† resulted in him eliciting testimony that he knew, or had been advised was in accurate. Mason interviewed a police detective who stated in court that Towler never denied raping the eleven year old; however, notes written by the detective himself during his investigation supported Towler’s claims to not having raped the child. In responding to Mason’s questions, a police officer provided testimony that Towler had some form of an indecent communication with the child prior to the rape. Yet police records indicated that it was Chris Towler, Raymond’s brother, who had communication (which was appropriate) with the child. Even with a variety of inconsistencies present, a misled jury still convicted Towler. The mistake the prosecutor made was that he did not utilize sufficient evidence in the case or the fact that Towler wasn’t nowhere near the area or the fact that he never even came in contact with the child, physically or verbally. He also failed to utilize the statement taken by the officer concerning to it being Towler’s brother that was in the area where the act supposedly occurred and had the documented conversation with the child. Without these little pieces of evidence being presented Towler was sentence to life in prison and had spent 30 years incarcerated. How do you replace the time that individual lost? What form of immunity provides protection to the prosecutor pertaining to consequences of misconduct? By the guidelines set forth in the legal dictionary â€Å"Prosecutors are afforded totally immunity for any actions committed before a Grand Jury or a trial. However, while conducting the investigatory phase, only qualified immunity is granted to them. In the case of Kalina v. Fletcher, (1997), it was ruled by the United States Supreme Court that absolute immunity was not a right entitled to prosecutor in regards to his/her actions of allegedly submitting false statements of facts in an Affidavit supporting the application document for an arrest warrant. Consideration of policies regarding merited absolute immunity contains interest of both protection of the prosecutor of harassing litigation that would disrupt the required time or the attention allocated for official duties and the interest towards providing him/her the ability to utilize independent judgment pertaining to decisions on which suits to file and pursue in court. Another example of a real life story pertaining to judicial misconduct would be the case involving Samuel Kent, Mr. Kent served as a judge for over 18 years, but was now being sentenced to three years inside a federal prison for lying about inappropriate conduct towards his staff, of which two provided physic al evidence as to number of years they both endured various assaults by the judge who was for the most part intoxicated. The pattern of sexual misconduct directed at the judges co-workers along with constant violations of workplace intoxication are obvious wrongdoings committed by the judge. It is my opinion that performing elections would be better suited process for judicial selection due to its ability to allow the citizens to make their own choice as to who should represent them through the process of researching them first. While certainly recognizing these acts of misconducts occurring within our criminal justice system, how we propose deter criminal acts on the streets when it’s evident we can not deter it inside of our courts and legal system. Then when you factor in the occurrences of individuals being incarcerated and then being found innocent and having to be compensated through local and state funds that we other citizens are responsible for not to mention the lost of time these individuals lose from their life, friends, and family; which honestly begs the question how could any amount of money replace this time. In my opinion, we as a society really need to make ourselves more aware to the fact that these issues require addressing in our criminal justice system. We really need the accessibility of additional resources required to fill more jobs with truly qualified individuals versus our penchant for sacrificing ourselves to individuals with recognizable names or higher government officials who claim to have or best interest at heart when certain decisions they make appear to be the complete opposite. References Schmalleger, F., & Hall, D. E. (2010). Criminal Law Today. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Siegel, L. J., Schmalleger, F., & Worrall, J. L. (2011). Courts and Criminal Justice in America. Upper Saddle River, NJ. www.Lawlibrary.com http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/immunity

Illegal Immigration And Illegal Immigrants - 3175 Words

Abstract Throughout the years there has been and increasing number of illegal immigrants in this country. Just recently Obama took executive action to shield illegal immigrants from deportation. A Texas Judge though blocked his executive action on immigration. Illegal immigration is a huge controversy here in the United States partly due to Americans thinking that illegal immigrates are taking jobs, causing lower wages, and the costs of education. In Immigration and the American Worker, George Borjas found that the presence of immigrant workers, whether they are legal or illegal, made the U.S economy about 11 percent larger each year. If overall the U.S economy is better off with illegal immigrant workers, then why is there a push for harsher immigration policies? The controversy is due to the fact that the impact of illegal immigration changes from state to state. I hypothesize that the problem is the distribution of illegal immigrants across the United States. I believe that the benefits ou tweigh the costs and that because of the distribution of illegal immigrants, the costs are only felt by a few. By granting amnesty to the undocumented workers we could increase the level of tax payers and better the lives of those who feel the costs of illegal immigrants the most. I will test this hypothesis out by looking at the impact illegal immigrant on the labor market, the cost of illegal immigration, cost of ant-immigrant policies, impact of legalization, and impact of amnesty.Show MoreRelatedIllegal Immigration : Illegal Immigrants955 Words   |  4 PagesIllegal Immigration Problems In the United States, there are roughly eleven million people who can be classified as illegal immigrants, which is by far way too many. When it comes to the history of illegal immigrants, most United States citizens could be considered as an illegal immigrant. 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If something is not done soon, this may get out of hand and be to gone far not to handle. The number of illegal immigrants have gone up over the past years drastically In 2011, there were 40 million immigrants in the U.S. Of that 11.1 million were illegal. Although the number of illegalRead MoreIllegal Immigrants : Illegal Immigration1155 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction Illegal Immigration is a huge topic especially in 2017, bringing in different aspects about illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are told to be killers, drug dealers, job stealers and whom also hurt the U.S. economy. Is this true? Could it possibly be that they do all of this to hurt the United States? Or could it be that they truly come here for the American Dream? 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The migrating people are motivated by the better non-skilled or semi-skilled employment opportunities in the USA and the relatively higher remuneration for se rvices rendered in the USA than in the neighbor countries especially Mexico (HansonRead MoreIllegal Immigrants And Illegal Immigration1286 Words   |  6 Pages Undocumented Immigration An analysis of illegal immigration in the United States reveals one challenge facing the banks and other institutions: whether to provide banking and other services to the illegal immigrants or to treat them as criminals because they are illegal and therefore, not to provide them with banking and other services. The articles, â€Å"Crossing the Line† by Stein and â€Å"Illegal Immigrants – They’re Money,† by Rodriguez discuss the impact of illegal immigration in the United StatesRead MoreIllegal Immigration And Illegal Immigrants1335 Words   |  6 PagesIllegal immigration has been one of the main topics during the last three presidential election. 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