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British Medical Journal logoLink to British Medical Journal
. 1975 Aug 9;3(5979):341–343. doi: 10.1136/bmj.3.5979.341

Influence on clinical practice of routine intra-partum fetal monitoring.

J Sibanda, R W Beard
PMCID: PMC1673830  PMID: 239781

Abstract

An attempt has been made to monitor by continuous fetal heart rate according all women admitted in labour. Altogether 85% of the 1070 patients delivered at one hospital were monitored in 1973 and 92% in 1974. Perinatal mortality fell significantly from levels in preceding years to 15-8 and 11-7 per 1000 births, respectively, in 1973 and 1974. The fall was primarily due to the elimination of intra-partum stillbirths and a significant reduction in neonatal mortality. The incidence of caesarean sections also fell from 9-7% in 1973 to 5-8% in 1974. All patients should be monitored because it is impossible to predict reliably intra-partum fetal distress from maternal "high-risk" factors present before the onset of labour.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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