11/06/2025
This is something I've been teaching about since I started my work as a doula and birth educator ten years ago. We've known for decades that the electronic fetal monitoring leads to worse outcomes for birthing parents and babies, yet most hospitals are relying on it more and more instead of less and less. Nursing shortages and medicine based on what puts the doctor and hospital at legal risk end up outweighing what is in the best interest of the patients. The advent of wireless monitoring has been contributing to more continuous monitoring even for low-risk pregnancies, which results in even more unnecessary cesarean births. Pregnant parents and their babies deserve better. This article is a great step in helping to raise awareness.
If you're pregnant and wondering how to better understand your monitoring options and how they may impact your experience, I suggest taking an independent (not hospital-based) birth class (you can find mine at https://bookwhen.com/joyfulstart) and also checking out:https://evidencebasedbirth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Fetal-Monitoring-Handout.pdf
An excellent article today from . Note the lack of evidence supporting the use of continuous fetal monitoring, the clear influence of business and economics, and the money grab from AI companies who claim studies support their product - when in fact they don’t - resulting in remote monitoring hubs.
I especially love that placenta accreta is described early in the article so the public can see that cesareans carry risk. As a result, we need to ensure that they occur only when needed or wanted.
Note that the photo for this article is of a remote monitoring hub. One such hub is up to 60 miles away from the hospital in which the woman is laboring.
“Nearly every woman who gives birth in an American hospital is strapped with a belt of sensors to track the baby’s heartbeat. If the pattern is deemed abnormal — too slow, for example — doctors often call for an emergency C-section.
But this round-the-clock monitoring, the most common obstetric procedure in the country, rarely helps baby or mother. Decades of research have shown that the tool does not reliably predict fetal distress. In fact, experts say, it leads to many unnecessary surgeries as doctors overreact to its ever-changing readouts.
The obstetrics field has long ignored these problems. Now, it’s putting more trust than ever on the flawed technology, often prioritizing business and legal concerns ahead of what’s best for patients, The New York Times found.
This fall, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists updated its guidelines on continuous monitoring, sanctioning it even as some other wealthy countries have cautioned against its routine use…
All three remote hubs, along with 400 other hospitals around the country, use A.I. software to help analyze the heart data. The software’s maker, PeriGen, has claimed on its website that 50 studies backed up its products.
But none of the studies found that the technology improved birth outcomes. PeriGen removed the list of studies after an inquiry from The Times. The company’s chief executive, Matthew Sappern, acknowledged that no clinical trials had shown benefits.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/health/electronic-fetal-monitoring-c-sections.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zE8.145f.FPhFANzFoVZp&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
