Academic OB/GYN

Continuous fetal heart rate monitoring is at its core an almost laughable idea.   We are checking a single vital sign and using that vital sign to extrapolate a host of ideas and meanings.  OBs that have read strips for years can make some sense of them, but would we give so much meaning to any other single vital sign?  Would we do it with an adult?  Of course not, but there are people who do.  In fact, there are entire countries where this is a major methodology for determining the etiology of illnesses.

But the people doing this are not physicians – they are the healers of various cultures.  Throughout the world there are practitioners who claim to divinate illness through feeling a person’s pulse for several minutes.  This is particularly prominent in Asia.  They describe using the rate, strength, and character of the pulse to make all manner of determinations.   This practice is fairly laughable to physicians, as it seems crazy to get so much meaning from feeling someone’s pulse.

But is this so much different than EFM?  In fact its quite similar.   Given that traditional healers are probably hit and miss with their diagnoses, its no surprise that EFM technology is similarly lacking.

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