Computer analysis of fetal heart rate variation during normal pregnancy

Ninety-seven one-hour recordings of the abdominal fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) were made from 59 normal patients between 21 and 41 weeks of gestation. The heart intervals, measured between successive R-waves, were analysed by computer. The signal-to-noise ratio of the fetal ECG limited the precision of the interval measurements to approximately one millisecond. The characteristics of the baseline heart rate changed significantly as gestation advanced, the mean R-R interval, the standard deviation of the intervals and the standard deviation of the interval differences all increasing with gestation (p less than 0.001). In later gestation the baseline heart rate during periods of fetal rest differed significantly from that during periods of fetal activity; during rest the mean R-R interval was greater (p smaller than 0.001) and the standard deviations of the intervals and interval differences were smaller (p smaller than 0.001). Examination of the coefficient of variation of the heart intervals gave a result which contradicted the significance of this measurement as an index of fetal welfare as proposed by Curran and MacGregor (1970).