Intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring

Intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring is commonly used to evaluate fetal status in labor, despite a lack of convincing randomized studies to support its use. The National Institutes of Health have helped standardize fetal heart rate monitoring terminology with their 1997 task force report, which will aid clinicians and scientists in their goal of providing quality care and research. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has recommended the term nonreassuring fetal status for electronic fetal monitor patterns that are not normal; however, Vanderbilt continues to use the terms fetal stress and fetal distress, using specific criteria for each. The approximately 30% of fetal heart rate tracings labeled as fetal stress (or nonreassuring fetal status) can be evaluated further by the use of fetal pulse oximetry, a new technology currently under evaluation in this country.