Patterns of uterine contractions and prolonged uterine activity using three methods of breast stimulation for...

The contraction patterns in 378 breast-stimulated contraction stress tests administered to 213 women are described. The subjects were assigned sequentially to one of four intervention groups: bilateral manual breast massage, unilateral pump stimulation, heating pad stimulation, and placebo. There was a marked increase in the proportion of tests with three to four contractions in 5-minute intervals after the interventions occurred. Twenty-five percent of all tests showed prolonged uterine activity, occurring most frequently in women with postdate gestations using manual massage or breast pump stimulation. The duration of prolonged contractions ranged from 1.5-8 minutes, with 19% lasting from 4.5-8 minutes. There was no difference in the incidence of fetal heart rate abnormalities between tests with and without prolonged uterine activity, and no late decelerations occurred in tests with tachysystole.