IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
The overarching goal of childbirth education is to have a healthy birth. Childbirth practices should not constitute a one-size-fits-all approach. Nurses and childbirth educators need to focus their attention on the patient, and not a machine. The indiscriminate use of EFM in the labor room is not improving outcomes, and is actually causing harm to healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies. Employing a low-tech, high-touch approach needs to be the main philosophy while providing nursing care to most laboring women.