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Intrapartum electronic fetal monitoring is used in high-risk pregnancies to monitor for signs of fetal hypoxia. It also is used commonly in pregnancies with low risk for fetal hypoxia, despite considerable uncertainty regarding the balance of harms and benefits.
In a large retrospective cohort of ≈210,000 singleton term vaginal deliveries from 2005 to 2023, Finnish researchers compared neonatal outcomes associated with three intrapartum fetal monitoring methods: invasive monitoring via fetal scalp electrode (FSE; 33% of deliveries), noninvasive (i.e., external) abdominal ultrasound (US) transducer alone (38% of deliveries), and noninvasive abdominal US transducer with concomitant maternal heart rate monitoring (MHR; 29% of deliveries). MHR w…