An awareness for the complexity of fetal traces and the potential of artifact is vitally important for professionals using electronic fetal monitoring devices.
In a busy daily routine, specific fetal trace characteristics may be missed, leading to unexpected or even fatal outcomes. One of the most common events is unintentional – recording of the maternal blood vessel pulsation instead of the fetal heart.
Read the case study in which clinicians confused the maternal pulse and fetal heart rates in a 21-year-old pregnant woman in labor.