Erroneous Recording of Maternal Heart Rate as Fetal Heart Rate During Second Stage of Labour: Isn’t it Time to Stop this?

Electronic Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) monitoring is recommended to assess fetal well-being during labour in high risk pregnancies. This Cardiotocograph (CTG) relies on the ultrasound technology with limitation of signal loss 15% 40% cases [1]. In earlier versions these CTG monitors, heart tracings were generally reasonable quality many artefacts and some degree occasional large noise. Subsequent models improved by modulation autocorrelation. Although, new methodologies processing have reduced loss, issues inadvertent maternal rate as inaccurate evaluations baseline (i.e. doubling or halving) continue pose difficulties intrapartum monitoring.