Evaluation of daily fetal movement counting in some cases of high risk pregnancy

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at testing the value of daily fetal movement counting [DFMC] as a clinical method of antepartum fetal assessment in high risk pregnancy and its potential use as a screening test in low risk pregnancy. The study included comparison between DFMC and the more sophisticated methods as nonstress test [NST] and biophysical profile [BPP] regarding the perinatal outcome. A pilot phase including 100 normal pregnant women showed that time interval to perceive 10 fetal movements [FM] was 36 +/- 22 minutes [mean +/- SD]. A study phase including 40 high risk and 10 normal pregnant women showed that there was a significant association between decreased FM, nonreactive NST, poor BPP [<6/8] and poor perinatal outcome. Perinatal outcome was poor in as high as 50% of cases with decreased FM, while it was poor in only 2% of cases with normal FM. These results indicated that decreased FM places the fetus in a high risk category necessitating further evaluation of fetal condition. It is concluded that count-to- ten method of FMC is potentially useful in fetal assessment. Being reliable, simple, easy, inexpensive and noninvasive method, it can be used as a screening test on a wide scale. However, further larger study is recommended before extrapolation of the results: