In the past decade fetal heart rate monitoring has become a generally
ac- cepted method for fetal surveillance during pregnancy and labor.
Although its importance has been doubted recently, I personally feel
that this method has become an important obstetric tool. It has not only
improved our knowledge about fetal behavior and fetal condition
throughout gesta- tion, but it has especially improved fetal
surveillance during labor; the most dangerous period of human life has
never been as safe as nowadays. The only people who can question the
advantage of fetal heart rate moni- toring are those who did not
experience the period before fetal heart rate monitoring was generally
introduced. The first paper on the history of fetal heart rate
monitoring takes us back to the beginning of fetal surveillance and
provides an introduction to the different aspects of fetal observation
which are covered later in this volume. Common practices of fetal
surveillance in different countries are discussed, and the paths that
future developments will take are suggested. An outline of the
physiological aspects of fetal heart rate regulation is fol- lowed by
discussion of the pathophysiology with which the obstetrician is very
often confronted.