Maternal Hyperoxygenation for Intrapartum Fetal Heart Rate Tracing Abnormalities

Hyperoxygenation for resuscitation of abnormal fetal heart rate tracings has been routine obstetric practice. However, there have not been any studies to support this practice. Recent literature have either found no associated benefit to intrapartum maternal oxygen administration, or in a number of studies demonstrated higher risk of neonatal complications. Despite these studies, the evidences have not been adequate to change the clinical practice because the majority of these studies either focused on biological differences rather than clinical outcomes data or were retrospective rather than randomized trials. Therefore, the investigators propose a large single center randomized clinical trial to determine the effects of maternal hyperoxygenation therapy for the treatment of fetal heart rate tracing abnormalities.