When a mother arrives in triage, she will be put on an electronic fetal monitor and uterine contraction monitor. There are separate but similar looking monitors, about the size of your palm. Each one is attached to a disposable belt, which holds it against the abdomen. The monitors are plugged into a unit on the wall, which will show a digital reading of the fetal heart rate and contraction rate. The readings are printed on a roll of graph paper.

Normally the hospital wants an initial reading of 20 minutes. It is often referred to as "getting a good strip" on the baby. Getting a good strip means that the baby has a healthy range of heart tones and that the monitors are reading consistently during that time. Sometimes the monitor may not be reading the baby very well and will need to be adjusted. This may also mean that the monitoring period will be longer, in order to "get a good strip."

The uterine contraction monitor will show how often the contractions are coming and for how long. This provides information regarding labor progress and how the baby is responding to contractions. Once the initial monitoring period has ended, the monitors and belts can be removed. After that, Mother and Baby will need to be monitored periodically during labor. Because of the increase of complications with medication, if pitocin or an epidural is used, the monitoring will be continuous, until birth occurs.

Fetal monitoring can also be done with a handheld Doppler. Parents can ask the nurse to use a handheld Doppler for monitoring while the mother is in the tub.

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