[Intrapartum fetal monitoring: old or new techniques?].

The objective of intrapartum fetal monitoring is to prevent fetal asphyxia and fetal death during labor. Although a large proportion of neurologic sequelae are of antepartum origin, criteria have been defined to relate cerebral palsy to an intrapartum event, including fetal asphyxia. Since the introduction of fetal heart rate monitoring, no changes in the cerebral palsy rate have been observed. Several other methods of fetal surveillance have been more or less recently developed: fetal scalp blood pH and lactates, fetal pulse oximetry and fetal electrocardiogram. The benefits and limits of these new tools are analyzed in this review.