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(Honesdale, May 12, 2005)… When you enter Wanda Endriss’ room at Wayne Memorial Hospital’s New Beginnings birthing unit, the first thing you hear is the beat of her baby’s heart inside her womb. The unmistakable—and spellbinding— sound guides your eye from the mother lying propped up on a pillow to a sleek machine overhead. It’s a computer system tracking the health of the baby’s heartbeat. And though Endriss can’t feel contractions yet, that same machine is charting the contractions inside her uterus.

Endriss is one of the first pregnant women at Wayne Memorial to be hooked up to the latest technology in obstetrics monitoring. Technology that could warn of problems for her or her baby if something happened—and forewarn more quickly than ever before. “An alarm goes off if there’s a problem with the baby or the mother,” says Julie Nardella, RN, Manager of WMH New Beginnings Birthing Suites. “We can call the patient’s physician to review the tracing right away on a secured site. The doctor can see what’s happening as it happens and act accordingly.

“It’s real-time evaluation and that means expedited intervention.”

Nardella says Wayne Memorial has the “complete” maternal fetal neonatal intensive care component of the hi-tech GE Healthcare system, with the physician link capabilities.  Between 20 and 30 patients have been hooked up to the system since it went online at New Beginnings in early May.

“We’ve also ‘dropped lines’ into the Emergency Room and Operating Room,” Nardella continues, “so if a pregnant woman is in, say, a car accident and she’s being seen in the ER, we can immediately assess her baby’s status.”

A long time Ob nurse, Nardella says the new system eliminates many data-interpretation problems because it offers “real-time access.”  “A doctor doesn’t have to interpret a current situation from often unclear fax information and there’s no middle-man. It’s direct from the patient and her baby to the healthcare provider making the decisions.”