Fetal monitoring: is it worth it?
The current trend to fewer births per family, a lower birth rate, and a national commitment to reduce mental retardation calls for evaluation of methods which will optimize perinatal outcome individually and in a collective sense. Based on the assumption that continuous fetal heart rate monitoring during labor can reduce perinatal mortality and morbidity by 50%, a cost analysis is constructed. The cost for total monitoring of 3000 deliveries per year is compared with the potential savings due to prevention of one-half of the mental retardation that would develop from the same group were they not monitored.
D002140:California; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005318:Fetal Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation; D011181:Postnatal Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis