Pregnancy outcomes in women presenting with single versus multiple episodes of reduced fetal movements: A prospective observational study

Abstract

Fetal movement counting may assist clinicians to intervene at the right time and improve perinatal outcomes, but may sometimes cause unnecessary interventions. A recent Cochrane review in 2015 concludes that there is insufficient evidence to influence practice. This prospective observational study was conducted to evaluate pregnancy outcomes of 103 pregnant women presenting with primary complaints of reduced fetal movements to our Institute. All patients underwent ultrasonography (USG) and non-stress testing (NST) as preliminary investigations and were followed up till delivery. Labor outcomes like onset of labor, mode of delivery, neonatal outcomes like APGAR scores, admission to NICU for > 24 hours, birth weight, neonatal complications and maternal complications were noted. One hundred and three pregnant women presented with reduced fetal movements, of whom, 65% were term primigravida between the ages of 18-26 years. 47.5% belonged to the high risk pregnancy group. The rates of admission (62.1%), induction (77.7%) and cesarean section (43.7%) were high in this group. Pregnancy outcomes did not differ between single and multiple episodes of reduced fetal movements. Based on risk categorization we found that a single episode of reduced fetal movement was associated with approximately 70% good neonatal outcomes, whereas there was 50% risk of adverse neonatal outcomes with multiple episodes. Though this was clinically significant we could not establish statistical significance for this result. Reduced fetal movement can occur in both low and high risk pregnant population. Pregnancy outcomes between single and multiple episodes of RFM were not significantly different.