Is it Premature Labor or a False Alarm?
Memorial Healthcare System Now Offers Faster Test Results
December 2000 -- Pregnant women in South Florida have a new resource to determine if their contractions are false labor and will not lead to the delivery of a premature baby.
The newest advance for distinguishing pre-term labor from false labor is the fetal fibronectin test, and Memorial Healthcare System has acquired a machine that analyzes patients' samples in as little as two hours.
"Until last August, we sent our fetal fibronectin samples to a lab in Lenexa, Kansas, and that added 24 hours to the wait," says Katie Daniels, nurse manager of the Family Birthplace at Memorial Regional Hospital.
The in-house equipment means that doctors will be able to identify false labor more quickly so they can expedite treatment only for those women who need it.
The fetal fibronectin test is easily obtained in a doctor's office or hospital setting from women who are exhibiting symptoms of premature labor.
"The procedure is not painful," says Daniels. "It's similar to a Pap smear. We just insert a speculum, swab some vaginal tissue, then analyze the sample for the presence of fetal fibronectin."
If the patient's test is negative, there's a greater than 99% chance that she will not deliver within the next 14 days, according to Daniels. If, however, the test is positive and the patient is still contracting, she will be treated immediately for pre-term labor. Finally, if the patient has a positive test result but no further contractions, she will be sent home with the understanding that she may go into labor within 14 days and should return to the hospital if warning symptoms occur.
"The exact course of action would depend on the specific findings for each patient during the course of her physical exam," says Daniels.
The machine that analyzes samples is accessible to all the facilities of Memorial Healthcare System and, depending on the needs of the patient, other local healthcare facilities as well.
"Many other hospitals in the nation still rely on an outside lab, so Memorial's patients are fortunate to have this," she says.