New study by Dr. Cahill

Huge study on the horizon for Dr. Alison Cahill and company.

“The technology became accepted practice before we knew if it worked or not. The stillbirth rate has not changed, and the rate of cerebral palsy has increased,” says Alison Cahill, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation physician faculty scholar. “We also believe EFM has had a negative effect by contributing to the drastic rise in cesarean section rates in the past 20 years.”

Cahill and her colleagues at the School of Medicine have received a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to better understand the link between fetal heart decreases during labor and brain damage to newborns. The scientists will compare fetal heart rate patterns to neonatal outcomes in 7,000 term deliveries.