Fetal monitoring provides a window allowing the midwife or doctor to see how the unborn child is faring. Whilst there may be a temptation to monitor everything possible continuously this is seldom necessary in low risk pregnancies progressing normally.
Cardiotocography (CTG) is a useful tool but suffers from problems caused by poor interpretation, inappropriate timing or lack of fetal blood sampling (FBS). It does however provide a continuous visual record that includes variability and is highly sensitive for fetal distress, reducing short term neurological morbidity, and hopefully allaying fears for the anxious parents. The disadvantages are than it restricts maternal movement and has a has a lower specificity with an increased rate of obstetric intervention. There is also no proven reduction in mortality or long term handicap when CTG is used.
One way of deciding what form of fetal monitoring should be used is via a simple schematic as below.