The literal answer to your question is that you have no way of knowing if the baby is in "distress." There are no symptoms. In theory, fetal monitoring can detect babies that are not receiving enough oxygen during labor. There are three caveats to this idea:

1. In the 1960s it was believed that most cases of cerebral palsy and mental retardation resulted from lack of oxygen during labor. We now know that the opposite is true: fetal injury rarely occurs during labor. Most of these neurological injuries result from problems (some recognized and most not) from before the onset of labor.

2. Fetal compromise during labor is thought to occur in no more than one percent of labors. Fortunately, it is relatively rare.

3. Fetal monitoring has not proven very effective in improving neonatal outcomes. Monitor tracings can be notoriously difficult to interpret.

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