The relationship between fetal heart rate accelerations, fetal movements, and uterine contractions

Effect of uterine contractions on fetal heart rate in pregnancy: a prospective observational study

“…Sadovsky et al. demonstrated that most FHR accelerations occurred during BHC in antenatal short‐term recordings .…”

Absence of accelerations during labor is of little value in interpreting fetal heart rate patterns

“…Several studies have shown that the appearance of FHR accelerations is a verification of a well‐functioning connection between the fetal heart and the autonomic nervous system, just as the FHR variability is . However, accelerations are one of five parameters that are evaluated in CTG, i.e.…”

Fetal Heart Rate Beat-to-Beat Variability in Uncomplicated Labor

“…Fetal body movements are frequently associated with uterine contractions [6,7,10]. It is possible that the increase of the BTBV during periods of increased fetal activity as reported in some studies was actually caused by uterine contractions.…”

“…As it is known that fetal body movements frequently occur during uterine contractions [6,7], we undertook a study in order to investigate whether changes in BTBV during labor could be contributed to both these fac tors, namely uterine contractions and fetal movements, or only to one of them.…”