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The diagnosis of fetal infection, other than in association with premature rupture of the membranes, requires the evaluation of various parameters. Children suspected are four to five times greater in number than those truly threatened. A new and important parameter has emerged as a result of tocokinetic investigation: in one case out of two 48 hours before birth and in three cases out of four during the day before birth, fetal motility, together with cardiac reactivity or not, appear to be very markedly decreased when the newborn will in fact be found to be infected. Tocokinetic study is thus a new source of help in the obstetric/pediatric decisions which must be taken in this context.

Manual evaluation of uterine contractility through the abdominal wall performed twice a day for 1 hour and reported by telephone every other day keeps pregnant women at risk of premature labour in a state of continual attention. When the women are disciplined, the recommendations, prescriptions and encouragements they receive in return result in a statistically significant reduction in the number of premature deliveries. More generally, this new and relatively inexpensive method leads to substantial savings. Such were the results obtained by comparing the courses of 2 series of pregnancies after hospitalization for the indispensable intravenous tocolysis.