Wednesday 10 September 2014

CTG: Common routine intervention in Irish maternity units despite 99% false positive rate

A strong, evidence-based and referenced piece of research which lays out the case that "electronic fetal monitoring is based on 19th-century childbirth myths, a virtually nonexistent scientific foundation, and has a false positive rate exceeding 99%. It has not affected the incidence of cerebral palsy. Electronic fetal monitoring has, however, increased the caesarian section rate, with the expected increase in mortality and morbidity risks to mothers and babies alike".

CTG is one of the most common routine interventions used in obstetric led Irish maternity hospitals with women of all risk groups. It is not evidence based practice and it's been shown to do more harm than good.

Routine use of CTG and admission trace is not supported by evidence nor is it recommended practice in Irish National Clinical Guidelines. Despite this, the overwhelming majority of obstetric led units in Ireland routinely use this intervention. Its use is so normalised in Ireland many women, HCPs, and indeed the Courts, do not consider routine use of CTG and Admission trace an 'intervention' and base standards of care and practice on CTG readings despite a 99% false positive rate.

Some Irish obstetric units have taken this a step further, when women make an informed refusal on admission trace or CTG an intervention 'bartering system' is put in place - telling women they can only refuse the CTG if they have an ARM (also not evidence based or best practice).

Women giving birth in Ireland and their babies deserve evidence based care.

Healthy Births for Healthy Mums & Babies.

#demandevidencebasedcare #informedchoice #informedrefusal
Read the article here:

Cerebral Palsy Litigation

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