A one-year study of routine fetal heart rate monitoring during the first stage of labor.

At the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden 90 per cent of all deliveries are monitored with cardiotocography (CTG). The fetal heart rate recording (FHR) together with various pregnancy- and delivery data, are continuously analysed. The present paper is an account of FHR changes during the first stage of labor of all patients registered during 1977. FHR-changes occurred already during the 1st stage of labor in more than 90 per cent of all deliveries where the newborns' Apgar score was less than 7 at 1 minute. Tachycardia, silent pattern, and late and combined decelerations, rarely occurred in the material, but were dominant at deliveries where the newborns' Apgar score was less than 7 at 1 and 5 minutes. This relationship was even more pronounced when these changes occurred together.