Figure 1 (Illustration 1)
Without accelerations or decelerations, Doppler read-outs or ‘FHR counted over 1 minute’ will give reliable estimate of the baseline FHR. But, the effort of actually counting heart beats over 1 minute could compromise the special attention required to detect any decelerations recovering just after the contractions. Simply observing the numerical read-outs on a Doppler-device allows more attention to any temporal changes of FHR as well as very flexible extension of auscultation duration.
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