Intrapartum foetal heart rate decelerations are physiological adaptations to hypoxia: a critical appraisal of the recent evidence

Abstract

Electronic intrapartum foetal monitoring (also known as cardiotocography, CTG) is the standard technique to assess the foetal well-being during labour. In the last decade, several researchers have provided useful information regarding the pathophysiology of foetal heart rate (FHR) decelerations, the main CTG feature to cause interpretation disagreement; recent evidence summarized in this paper set new grounds to reconceptualize the “classical” aetiology of intrapartum foetal hypoxia and FHR decelerations. Each deceleration is generated from hypoxia