Overdiagnosis and CTG monitoring
Unlike Dr Who, we can’t drop into our future timeline to see what the consequences of our current decisions are. If we could, would we make different choices?
EFM
Electronic fetal monitoring
Reviewing the evidence for Intermittent Auscultation
I was excited to see a new paper, setting out the evidence for intermittent auscultation in labour (Anderson, et al., 2023). It was published in a journal for US based nurse-midwives, so it relates to the context of care in that country. Let’s see how they did in terms of getting the facts right. Is their evidence accurate? They wrote that: All this is correct, except that one of the […]
Hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy prevention: is it working?
Hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (or HIE) is a condition affecting newborn infants. As the name suggests, it relates to low oxygen supply (hypoxia), and / or reduced blood flow (ischaemia) causing damage (-pathy) to the brain (encephalo-). Other parts of the body might also show signs of damage from low oxygen, like the kidneys or the gut. It is diagnosed when there is a combination of high acid levels in umbilical […]
Antenatal CTGs in the Netherlands: the impact on midwifery continuity of care
While last week’s post questioned whether we should be doing antenatal CTGs at all, this week’s post explores the positive impact of a shift from referring women into obstetric care for antenatal CTG monitoring to providing this in primary midwife-led care. Maternity care in the Netherlands The Netherlands offers a very different approach to maternity care than most other high income countries. Midwifery care is very much accepted and supported […]
Smart surveillance and the caesarean section rate: Have they cracked the code?
A recently published paper from Taiwan has caught my eye (Cheng, et al., 2023). Researchers don’t often find new technology can reduce the caesarean section rate, but that’s what this group have done. Let’s dig in and see what it was all about. (The paper is open access so feel free to grab a copy and read along with me). What was the new tech? The authors described a newly […]
Can CTGs harm? Part 3
Does CTG monitoring generate more harm than benefit for babies? Here’s the evidence….
Can CTGs harm? Part 2
What are the psychological consequences of CTG monitoring? Sadly, we don’t actually know….
What is CTG monitoring?
Today’s post takes us back to the basics and discusses what CTG monitoring is.
Listening to the fetus: the history of fetal heart rate monitoring
In 1819 Kergaradec wrote “it seemed to me that I was hearing the movements of a watch placed very close to me”. It is probably fair to claim this is the moment fetal heart rate monitoring came into existence.
How to guess fetal blood pressure
Can you accurately guess fetal blood pressure from the heart rate pattern? #AI #CTG #EFM #FetalMonitoring #Physiology #Sheep
Birth Small Talk 