Kaplan Maternity Integrated Practice Exam 2025 – The All-in-One Guide to Master Your Exam Success!

When administering propranolol, close monitoring of the apical heart rate is essential due to the medication's impact on cardiovascular function. Propranolol is a non-selective beta-blocker that can reduce heart rate and myocardial contractility. It is often used to manage conditions like hypertension and anxiety, but in a maternity context, it is crucial to monitor the maternal heart rate to ensure that it remains within an acceptable range.

Propranolol can result in bradycardia, which is an abnormally slow heart rate, potentially leading to insufficient cardiac output and reduced blood flow to both the mother and fetus. Therefore, monitoring the apical heart rate allows healthcare providers to assess the patient's response to the medication and make any necessary adjustments to treatment.

Effective monitoring of other parameters such as maternal temperature, fetal activity, or inspiratory rate is also important in a comprehensive assessment of maternal and fetal well-being, but these do not directly correlate with the critical effects of propranolol on heart rate and cardiovascular dynamics. Thus, apical heart rate is the most pertinent parameter to observe when administering this medication.