The social organisation of decision-making about intrapartum fetal monitoring: An Institutional Ethnography.

BACKGROUND: International guidelines recommend intrapartum cardiotocograph (CTG) monitoring for women at risk for poor perinatal outcome. Research has not previously addressed how midwives and obstetricians enable or hinder women's decision-making regarding intrapartum fetal monitoring and how this work is structured by external organising factors. AIM: To examine impacts of policy and research texts on midwives' and obstetricians' work with labouring women related to intrapartum fetal monitoring decision-making. METHODS: We used a critical feminist qualitative methodology known as Institutional Ethnography (IE). The research was conducted in an Australian tertiary maternity service. Data collection included interviews, observation, and texts relating to midwives' and obstetricians' work with the fetal monitoring system. Textual mapping was used to explain how midwives' and obstetricians' work was organised to happen the way it was. FINDINGS: CTG monitoring was initiated predominantly by midwives applying mandatory policy. Midwives described reluctance to inform labouring women that they had a choice of fetal monitoring method. Discursive approaches used in a national fetal surveillance guideline, a Cochrane systematic review, and the largest randomised controlled trial regarding CTG monitoring in labour generated and reproduced assumptions that clinicians, not labouring women, were the appropriate decision-maker regarding fetal monitoring in labour. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Guidelines structured midwives' and obstetricians' work in a manner that undermined women's participation in decisions about fetal monitoring method. Intrapartum fetal monitoring guidelines should be critically reviewed to ensure they encourage and enable midwives and obstetricians to support women to make decisions about intrapartum care.

Midwives must, obstetricians may: An ethnographic exploration of how policy documents organise intrapartum fetal monitoring practice.

BACKGROUND: The capacity for midwifery to improve maternity care is under-utilised. Midwives have expressed limits on their autonomy to provide quality care in relation to intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring. AIM: To explore how the work of midwives and obstetricians was textually structured by policy documents related to intrapartum fetal heart rate monitoring. METHODS: Institutional Ethnography, a critical qualitative approach was used. Data were collected in an Australian hospital with a central fetal monitoring system. Midwives (n=34) and obstetricians (n=16) with experience working with the central fetal monitoring system were interviewed and observed. Policy documents were collected and analysed. FINDINGS: Midwives' work was strongly structured by policy documents that required escalation of care for any CTG abnormality. Prior to being able to escalate care, midwives were often interrupted by other clinicians uninvited entry into the room in response to the CTG seen at the central monitoring station. While the same collection of documents guided the work of both obstetricians and midwives, they generated the expectation that midwives must perform certain tasks while obstetricians may perform others. Midwifery work was textually invisible. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our findings provide a concrete example of the way policy documents both reflect and generate power imbalances in maternity care. Obstetric ways of knowing and doing are reinforced within these documents and continue to diminish the visibility and autonomy of midwifery. Midwifery organisations are well placed to co-lead policy development and reform in collaboration with maternity consumer and obstetric organisations.

"I'm not doing what I should be doing as a midwife": An ethnographic exploration of central fetal monitoring and perceptions of clinical safety.

BACKGROUND: Central fetal monitoring systems transmit cardiotocograph data to a central site in a maternity service. Despite a paucity of evidence of safety, the installation of central fetal monitoring systems is common. AIM: This qualitative research sought to explore whether, and how, clinicians modified their clinical safety related behaviours following the introduction of a central monitoring system. METHODS: An Institutional Ethnographic enquiry was conducted at an Australian hospital where a central fetal monitoring system had been installed in 2016. Informants (n=50) were midwifery and obstetric staff. Data collection consisted of interviews and observations that were analysed to understand whether and how clinicians modified their clinical safety related behaviours. FINDINGS: The introduction of the central monitoring system was associated with clinical decision making without complete clinical information. Midwives' work was disrupted. Higher levels of anxiety were described for midwives and birthing women. Midwives reported higher rates of intervention in response to the visibility of the cardiotocograph at the central monitoring station. Midwives described a shift in focus away from the birthing woman towards documenting in the central monitoring system. DISCUSSION: The introduction of central fetal monitoring prompted new behaviours among midwifery and obstetric staff that may potentially undermine clinical safety. CONCLUSION: This research raises concerns that central fetal monitoring systems may not promote safe intrapartum care. We argue that research examining the safety of central fetal monitoring systems is required.

Intrapartum cardiotocograph monitoring and perinatal outcomes for women at risk: Literature review.

PROBLEM: Caesarean section rates have risen in high-income countries. One of the potential drivers for this is the widespread use of CTG monitoring. BACKGROUND: Intrapartum cardiotocograph monitoring is considered to be indicated for women at risk for poor perinatal outcome. AIM: This systematic literature review with meta-analysis examined randomised controlled trials and non-experimental research to determine whether cardiotocograph monitoring rather than intermittent auscultation during labour was associated with changes in perinatal mortality or cerebral palsy rates for high-risk women. METHODS: A systematic search for research published up to 2019 was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases. Non-experimental and randomised controlled trial research in populations of women at risk which compared intrapartum cardiotocography with intermittent auscultation and reported on stillbirth, neonatal mortality, perinatal mortality and/or cerebral palsy were included. Relative risks were calculated from extracted data, and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials was undertaken. FINDINGS: Nine randomised controlled trials and 26 non-experimental studies were included. Meta-analysis of pooled data from RCTs in mixed- and high-risk populations found no statistically significant differences in perinatal mortality rates. The majority of non-experimental research was at critical risk of bias and should not be relied on to inform practice. Cardiotocograph monitoring during preterm labour was associated with a higher incidence of cerebral palsy. DISCUSSION: Research evidence failed to demonstrate perinatal benefits from intrapartum cardiotocograph monitoring for women at risk for poor perinatal outcome. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need for well-designed research to consider whether intrapartum cardiotocograph monitoring provides benefits.