Follow-up national survey (Sweden) of routines for intrapartum fetal surveillance.

We performed a follow-up national survey concerning intrapartum fetal surveillance in Sweden to investigate if routines had changed since a previous survey in 1999, due to new data that have emerged since and technical developments. All labor wards throughout Sweden, with sizes varying from around 350 to more than 9,000 deliveries per year, have at present a rather uniform policy for intrapartum fetal surveillance with electronic fetal monitoring (EFM). They all use admission tests, fetal scalp blood sampling and have written guidelines for EFM. However, only 72% have written guidelines for fetal blood sampling. In 89% of the units lactate is analyzed in the fetal blood sampling. In half of the units the STAN-monitor is used.