Patients' acceptance of monitoring fetal movement. A randomized comparison of charting techniques.

Abstract An active fetus is reassuring to both the woman and her obstetrician. Numerous techniques of charting fetal movement have been shown to assist the clinician in caring for the high-risk patient. Patients' compliance with daily monitoring is an important clinical issue, and little information exists on the fetal movement record most preferred by the patient. A comparative study evaluated patients' acceptance of three commonly used charts. The 85 enrollees were given the different charts in a random manner and questioned at the next office visit. All the patients expressed approval of the concept and a lack of anxiety about such monitoring, complied with our instructions and returned the completed records. The neonatal outcomes were favorable with all the charting techniques in our antenatal fetal surveillance plan. The "count-to-10" method was rated most preferred in 95.3% of the cases. The reasons cited included convenience and less time needed to complete the recording. The mean time to complete this record was 19.7 +/- 22.9 minutes rather than one or more hours, as with the other charting methods. The results of this randomized investigation show the simple and rapid count-to-10 method to be the most acceptable charting technique to our patients for monitoring fetal movement.