An assessment of the criteria for selection of patients for an obstetric intensive care unit.

Intensive care monitoring of the fetus during labour improves perinatal conditions in 'high-risk" Black women. If the available facilities and staff are to be used with maximal efficiency, a system of priorities is necessary. It would appear that patients with meconium staining of the liquor, with cephalopelvic disproportion, or with two or more indications for monitoring, should have priority for admission to our intensive care unit. Hypertension and antepartum haemorrhage are of less importance, but there are two other problems which need investigation. There is a group of patients in labour who arrive too late to be monitored. They have a considerable perinatal mortality and the reasons for their late arrival need to be ascertained. There is a second group of patients who begin labour before term and deliver babies with a high risk of perinatal death. These problems require further investigation.