1958

Edward Hon’s article AJOG establishes foundation for clinical use of fetal monitoring, which was in clinical use as early as 1965 (Sandelowski, 144-45). By 1976, virtually all obstetrical residencies included electronic fetal monitoring (149). But fetal monitors use was not widespread in 70s and was resisted by “older” physicians and nurses; furthermore, conflict ensued when “better-trained nurses had to work with poorly trained and/or antagonistic physicians” (151). . . . “Indeed, machine monitoring of the fetus depended not only on the machine alone but, rather, on the nurse’s ability to properly interpret fetal heart rate patterns, to recognize patterns requiring immediate intervention, and to act appropriately in a timely fashion. The fetal monitor engaged the obstetric nurse even more fully in the diagnostic process, even if she was not officially seen as properly involved in diagnosis. The nurse was the one who was in the best position to ‘see’ fetal distress as soon as it occurred” (154-55). . . . Machine monitoring thus affirmed the value of the obstetric nurse and of obstetric nursing. Like the Cinderella status obstetrics occupied in the rank of medical specialties, obstetric nursing had a comparably low position in the nursing hierarchy. . . . After World War II when maternal mortality rates had declined sharply, childbearing women were seen as basically healthy and not requiring the nursing care sick patients needed” (155).