What is a potential risk of prolonged exposure to continuous fetal heart monitoring?

Prolonged exposure to continuous fetal heart monitoring can indeed lead to an increased potential for false-positive results, which may trigger unnecessary interventions. Continuous monitoring offers a thorough assessment of the fetal heart rate and can highlight variations in patterns, but it is also subject to misinterpretation and artifacts that may not represent the actual fetal condition.

These false-positive results might indicate that there is an adverse condition present when the fetus is actually in good health. As a consequence, healthcare providers may resort to interventions such as cesarean sections or other medical procedures that may not be warranted, exposing both the mother and baby to unnecessary risks.

This highlights the importance of interpreting continuous fetal heart monitoring data carefully and considering it in the context of other clinical findings to avoid inappropriate management decisions.