Intelligent Intermittent Auscultation in Labour

The programme, which takes around 60 minutes to complete, includes both pre-course and post-assessment exercises – so you can track your improvements as you progress. For the post-course assessment, the pass mark is 85%.

You should discuss the results with your educational supervisor if the assessment standard is not reached.

The course content focuses on:

• risk assessment of maternal and fetal wellbeing
• enhanced skills in auscultation and interpretation of the fetal heart in low-risk labouring women
• prompt recognition of abnormalities in the fetal heart pattern
• the ability to respond and escalate appropriately.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this programme, you will be able to:

• describe the risk assessment that is required to accurately assess maternal and fetal wellbeing at the beginning of labour
• describe how to undertake a thorough assessment of fetal wellbeing during labour using intermittent auscultation
• discuss when intermittent auscultation is appropriate or not
• identify the situations which would prompt a move to continuous electronic fetal monitoring
• listen to fetal heart sounds and identify the baseline rate and presence of abnormal features
• evaluate your competency and learning by undertaking the pre- and post-training assessment.

A basic understanding of fetal physiology is required before taking the programme.