Electronic Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Reduces Infant Mortality

A new study shows that the use of electronic fetal heart rate monitoring (EFM) lowers the rate of infant mortality.

Researchers at the University of Dentistry and Medicine of New Jersey (UMDNJ; New Brunswick, USA) and Winthrop University Hospital (Mineola, NY; USA) analyzed data from a sample of 1,945,789 singleton infant birth and death records from the 2004 US National Birth Cohort. Multivariable log-binomial regression models were fitted to estimate risk ratio (RR) to evaluate the association between EFM and mortality, while adjusting for age, race, marital status, education, smoking, and the infant's gender; 89% of singleton pregnancies had EFM.

The results showed that EFM was associated with significantly lower infant mortality; this was mainly driven by the lower risk of early neonatal mortality. In low-risk pregnancies, EFM was associated with decreased risk for low (less than 4) 5-min Apgar scores, whereas in high-risk pregnancies EFM was also associated with decreased risk of neonatal seizures. In all, the use of EFM decreased early neonatal mortality by 53%. The study was presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, held during February 2011 in San Francisco (CA, USA).

"There was some criticism within the obstetric community that fetal heart rate monitoring was quickly accepted technology without proof that it was effective," said study coauthor Suneet Chauhan, MD. "We thought we could use data from the National Birth Cohort to get a large enough sample to gauge its effectiveness.”

EFM is done during pregnancy, labor, and delivery to keep track of the heart rate of the fetus and the strength and duration of the contractions of the uterus.

Related Links:
University of Dentistry and Medicine of New Jersey
Winthrop University Hospital