FHT Baseline Change (110-160) in Labor: Danger, or Disregard?

FHT Baseline Change (110-160) in Labor: Danger, or Disregard?

Published: December 27, 2025

Duration: 24:10

In 2002, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) proposed the 3-Tier fetal heart rate (FHR) classification system that was subsequently adopted by many organizations, categorizing tracings into three groups: Category I (normal), Category II (indeterminate), and Category III (abnormal). Recently, our podcast team received an interesting question form one of our podcast family members: “If there is a change in the fetal heart rate tracing intrapartum, but it is still in the normal range (like 120 going to 150)- and variability is normal, is that an abnormality? And what is meant by a ‘ZigZag’ FHT pattern (different than m...