FHM

[Jackie Kitschke]

I pondered this question when I did a small research study on how midwives use the partograph. In all my searching I found a lot of articles recommending intermittent FHs over continuous CTG but no evidence as to where they found better outcomes with intermittent FHs. It made me think that we really don't believe that labour is normal as we are always "just checking" that everything is okay. We may not measure maternal vital signs as vigourously as we once did or use the CTG indiscrimately but we just have to check. And as we know that once you start screening for things you start to get false positives etc. I concluded that 5-15 minutes must be the time that the authors of the recommendations, policies, protocols etc think midwives and doctors can keep away from the belly. Just my thoughts Jackie