Wordwind asked for: The machine that shows the contractions when you're giving birth?
and doc_comfort answered: A CTG (cardiotocograph) machine. Measures the baby's heart (cardio) and the mother's contractions (toco).
I merely added the extraneous blather: I remember when my daughter was born that the machine was informally called "the monitor," as in "Um, nurse? Could you stop the monitor from making that incessant beeping?"
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Then Wordwind said:
Dear Flatlander:
Thanks for two terrific words: cardiotocograph and cardiotocogram.
Alas, the $0.25 words were courtesy of a far more medically oriented AWADer than I -- real thanks go to doc_comfort. I should have made it more obvious that I was (as usual) standing on the shoulders of a greengiant.