Continuous electronic fetal monitoring: contradictions between practice and research

The reliability, validity, and efficacy of electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) remain matters of controversy. In fact, several professional organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have endorsed the use of intermittent auscultation for low-risk pregnant women. Nevertheless, in 1996, 83% of laboring women in the United States are monitored electronically. Nurses should encourage healthy, low-risk pregnant women to weigh carefully decisions about the use of EFM.