Intrapartum fetal vitality assessment

Abstract

The incidence of morbidity and mortality resulting from perinatal hypoxia is variable around the world, reaching 33 to 1.000 alive newborns in developing countries. Although the greater part of cases of perinatal morbidity and morbidity cannot be prevented with labor monitoring, failure of appropriate actions are considered important contributing factors. Intrapartum cardiotocography have been largely used for monitoring of fetal heart rate and diagnosis of fetal well-being, but several studies suggest that there aren't advantages of this method when compared with intermittent auscultation in terms of improving neonatal outcome. Nowadays, other technologies have been proposed for fetal intrapartum assessment, like stimulation tests, near-infrared spectroscopy, fetal pulse oximetry and fetal electrocardiography.