Fetal heart rate monitoring often shows abnormal patterns that don’t reflect an underlying problem for the fetus. Research on fetal blood sampling has been limited. A recent study found weak correlations between fetal blood pH levels, umbilical cord pH levels and Apgar scores. It is vital that further research takes into account how fetal physiology actually works, rather than repeating inaccurate assumptions.
A Japanese research team compared human and artificial intelligence performance in analyzing CTG data to predict perinatal asphyxia. Clinicians slightly outperformed AI in accurately diagnosing affected babies. However, limitations raise concerns, emphasising the essential role of healthcare professionals over machines in maternity services.
Professor Susan Bewley is a professor of obstetrics with an interest in a great many things. I first became aware of her work many years ago, when I saw her writing about the potential links between the timing of cord clamping, cord blood pH testing, fetal monitoring methods, and perinatal outcomes. Susan recently challenged me to summarise the issues in a blog post – so here we go! Setting the […]
As I have been refreshing older blog posts, I realised I never did get around to writing about antenatal CTG use. Today’s post solves that gap! What is antenatal CTG monitoring and when is it used? Mostly I write about the use of CTG monitoring during labour. But this is not the only time CTGs are used in maternity care. Maternity professionals also use CTGs during pregnancy in an attempt […]
New research from Norway confirms no benefit from STAN systems. @EllenBlix
Birth Small Talk 