Temperature Recording of Pregnant Women in Labor: Analysis of Two Non-invasive Thermometers

The objective of this study is to compare two non-invasive thermometer technologies in pregnant women admitted for labor at the Family Birthing Center in Johnson City Medical Center. A total of 50 patients were recruited in the study. Temperature measurements using the oral 3M® Tempa.Dot and the Exergen 5000 Temporal Artery Thermometer (TAT) were obtained by trained personnel. These recordings were obtained once upon admission, at 2-hour intervals until delivery (to a maximal time of 20 hours), 1 hour before and after epidural placement, and 2 hours after vaginal delivery. The temperatures readings were then compared over all time points, and at each time point using SPSS and Student paired t-test. Trends of temperature changes in labor between both thermometers were also evaluated. We noted that over all time points, the skin temperature was 0.38°F higher than the oral temperature. This difference was statistically significant as well (98.19°F ±0.681 vs. 97.81°F ±0.750,