Stepping Hill Hospital - Sonicaid

Stepping Hill Hospital’s Delivery Unit delivers 4,000 babies each year. Monitoring of the baby during labour alerts staff to potential problems early, to allow appropriate intervention, improving the chances of women having a normal birth and of babies being born without major complications.

 

The sonicaid is a handheld device which listens to the baby’s heart rate to ensure that the baby is coping with labour and not at risk. At present the department doesn’t have any hand held sonicaids, so mothers need to be attached to a larger machine and are unable to move around during delivery. This can delay labour, leading to greater risk to both mother and baby.