The monitoring of labor by telemetry.

Telemetry and conventional cardiotocography were compared by monitoring the labor of 60 patients with an uneventful pregnancy and delivery in the 38th-42nd week of pregnancy. 31 patients were monitored by telemetry and 29 by cardiotocography. The patients were matched for age (+/- 5 years), duration of pregnancy (+/- 7 days) and parity (I or II). The husband attended labor and delivery in 42% of the cases in the telemetry group and in 59% of the cases in the control group. Induction of labor by amniotomy was performed in 32% of the cases in the telemetry group and in 24% of the cases in the cardiotocography group. The patients monitored subjective pain every half hour during the opening phase. The telemetric patients were encouraged to sit or walk during the first stage. No maternal or fetal complications occurred. All infants were born in good condition with APGAR scores greater than or equal to 7 recorded at one and five minutes. There were 4 operative deliveries in the telemetry group and 5 in the control group. Indications for these were maternal or uterine exhaustion with the exception of two control patients where fetal asphyxia was suspected. The duration of the first stage of labor did not differ significantly between the telemetry and the cardiotocography groups. The telemetric patients received less analgesics than the controls but this difference was not significant. In spite of less analgesia in the telemetry group, the secondparas of the telemetry group experienced significantly less (p less than 0.01) labor pain than the controls. In addition, the secondparas of the telemetry group considered the present labor less painful than the previous one significantly more often than the controls. Among the primiparous patients there was no difference in the amount of pain experienced by the patients.