Why was a new NICHD workshop on electronic fetal monitoring reconvened?
In the 1990s, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) sponsored a series of workshops that culminated in the publication of nomenclature, definitions, and guidelines for electronic fetal heart rate monitoring (EFM) in 1997.1 Since then, a number of organizations have produced new documents on EFM that have included different pattern interpretation systems.2 In 2008, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine co-sponsored a follow-up workshop on EFM with the following goals: (1) review and update the definitions for fetal heart rate (FHR) patterns from the prior workshop, (2) evaluate existing classification systems and make a recommendation for a system for use in the United States, and (3) set research priorities for EFM.3 Our hope was that a revised classification system would allow for clearer communication
