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Despite the wide use of intrapartum electronic fetal monitoring, its benefits have been debated, particularly in the context of cesarean delivery rates. In 2000, the FDA conditionally approved a fetal oximetry device that was developed to help characterize fetal condition in the presence of a nonreassuring heart rate. Investigators evaluated whether clinical knowledge of fetal oxygen saturation as an adjunct to conventional monitoring was associated with a reduction in the cesarean delivery rate.
They randomized more than 5000 healthy full-term nulliparous women in labor either to a “masked group” in which the fetal oxygen sensor was inserted but the oxygen saturation values were hidden from the clinicians, or to an “open group” in which the…