title: Acoustical analysis of maternal sounds during the second stage of labor.
abstract: Experienced obstetric nurse and midwives indicate they can differentiate among sounds indicating that a woman is (a) beginning to manifest the effort to bear down, (b) experiencing pain, or (c) frightened. This study examined the acoustical properties of work/effort, childlike, and out-of-control utterances to determine whether their acoustical properties differed. Out-of-control utterances are more tense but contain similar levels of shimmer and pitch as childlike utterances. Work/effort utterances are higher pitched and more tense than childlike utterances. Work/effort utterances contain more shimmer but have similar levels of pitch and tenseness as out-of-control utterances.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado School of Nursing, Denver 80262.
authors.forename: B F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McKay
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric / Q000523:psychology*; D009721:Nurse Midwives / Q000592:standards*; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000592:standards*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009773:Obstetric Nursing / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014743:Videotape Recording