Fetal movement assessment.
Maternal perception of fetal movements is the oldest and most commonly used method to assess fetal well-being. While almost all pregnant women adhere to it, organized screening by fetal movements has seen variable popularity among health professionals. Early results of screening were promising and fetal movement counting is the only antepartum testing method that has shown effect in reducing mortality in a randomized controlled trial comparing testing versus no testing. Although awareness of fetal movements is associated with improved perinatal outcomes, the quest to define a quantitative "alarm limit" to define decreased fetal movements has so far been unsuccessful, and the use of most such limits developed for fetal movement counting should be discouraged.
Frøen
J Frederik
JF
Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. frederik.froen@fhi.no
Heazell
Alexander E P
AE
Tveit
Julie Victoria Holm
JV
Saastad
Eli
E
Fretts
Ruth C
RC
Flenady
Vicki
V
D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005324:Fetal Movement; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D050497:Stillbirth