Advantages:
A more accurate fetal heart rate measurement, particularly of variability
Less prone to signal loss, inadvertently monitoring maternal heart rate, doubling or halving the fetal heart rate compared to external monitoring
Can be used when maternal obesity or fetal movement limits external monitoring
Better at detecting fetal arrhythmias
Disadvantages:
Restricts patient mobility
False-positive results may occur, particularly in low-risk pregnancies, which may lead to unnecessary operative delivery
More expensive than external monitoring
Risks:
Injury to fetal scalp (1%)
Cephalohematoma (1%)
Cutaneous hemorrhage (0.5%)
Neonatal sepsis (1%)