Curriculum · Gynecology / Women's Health / Infertility / Perinatal Care / Birth Spacing
Abnormal CTG in labour: first-line measures
What it is
CTG in labour follows the fetal heart alongside the uterine contractions. An abnormal trace shows reduced variability, early decelerations, late decelerations, or bradycardia, and one labour can move through all of them in turn: reduced variability while the os is still 4 cm, early decelerations at 6 cm, late decelerations once the woman is fully dilated, and then a bradycardia of 80 per minute.
How it is diagnosed
Reading a trace means commenting on the baseline rate, the beat to beat variability, the decelerations, the accelerations, and the contractions. What is not seen is reported as well as what is seen: a trace may be described as almost no contractions, no decelerations, and 4 accelerations in 10 min.