Cardiotocograph (electronic fetal monitor)
An electronic device with two transducers strapped onto the maternal abdomen with elastic belts: one uses ultrasound to detect the fetal heart rate, and the other (tocodynamometer) senses abdominal wall tension during contractions.
How it is used
It continuously or intermittently records the fetal heart rate and uterine contraction pattern during labor (or during a prepartum non-stress test) to detect early signs of fetal compromise.
Clinical tip
A tracing with reduced variability and decelerations does not always indicate true fetal compromise: it should always be interpreted in the full clinical context rather than in isolation.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.
Image: Martin Hawlisch (Wikimedia Commons). License CC BY-SA 3.0. View original source.
History
Added to the catalog on 2026-10-02.
Dates derived from the project's public version-control history on GitHub, not a live collaborative edit log.