The last hour of the intrapartum heart rates of 1,884 term singleton
fetuses collected during routine clinical monitoring over 19 months in
Oxford, United Kingdom was analyzed. The records were selected for
completeness and continuity until within at least 30 minutes of delivery.
It was found that female fetuses had significantly faster heart rates than
male fetuses. Epidural analgesia, weight percentile (adjusted for age and
sex), parity, the duration of first and second stages of labor, and a fall
in umbilical arterial blood pH at birth also independently modulated the
fetal heart rate. The effects of these independent variables on heart rate
were additive, the most important being epidural analgesia as a cause of
tachycardia. The effect of fetal gender was less in the first stage, 6 to 7
hours before deliver, and was not present before the onset of labor.
-MIDIRS, June 1999
Reprinted from Midwifery Today E-News (Vol 2 Issue 8 February 25, 2000)
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